A Greater Art When they emerged, the flames, As I was sure they would From their drought-loosened stranglehold, It was changing light I sought Smoke reached us across the valley And I gazed at the ridge Where it sliced along the belly of the sky, Where the colours I had yearned to discover Spilled and rioted At last the complexity of trees gave way And from this silencing A darker clearer line, The bold stroke of a brush, The edge of a wall about to buckle At home I assembled the pigments But nothing much came, Eager and exultant as I was, Sure of a virgin eye, Because walls were much on my mind The familiar ones at least, Of riches, faith and love, The common barricades Against that blackest certain fire It seems so useless now, the work of Capture, mimicry, approximation – So obsolete And even your arms, Forgive my falling out of them And into a greater art ________________________________________________________________________ Emanuel E. García, 2014 |