Paint a thousand words

Some while ago I spoke about the limitations for the artist, the restrictions of his palette, of his two dimensional domain.

In contrast I spoke about the freedom of the poet, the writer; his endless choice of words, his multi-directional outlooks, or the limitless disarray of his languages.

Yet, here and now, with a simple plant pot and a few flowers, a mixture of greens and pinks and reds.

How little justice does he give, and how much worse is the tedious technical explanation; filled with Latin names and overblown prescriptive descriptions.

How much better then, even than a photograph, to ask the artist, with his water colours, to gently place layer upon layer.

To cast and capture the shadows, to flare out the blooms, to go right inside the nectar; there and then to give me the picture which I am today unable to recreate with words

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Observation Tower

This

Is the flight path

Of the butterfly

Wait

Where am I going

Which way

Should I turn; now or next

From leaf to hydrangea

Or statuette to clover

And then away, right away, far away

To leave you at peace

Without foreboding

Under the cloud-covered, smothered sky

Might I then

Once more return briskly

With my friend

By the plant pots

Do you remember

On television

The wooden tops

The flower pot men

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Behind those eyes

We've talked a lot about micro-climates

About families

In happy times and war

We've thought a lot about

I hesitate and wonder why

The young girl is unhappy

We've broken yolks, had late night talks

We've seen the upside down

Airplane glider

In summer dress we've guessed

Much, or much less

Than all the swollen, fallen lottery numbers

With your manicured road sides

Your private drives

Robins on the wire

Invited words of invitation

A birthday celebration

To make her cry

An elemental elementary micro-climb

Behind those eyes

The blue of deep blue sky

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Interruptions on the circle line

Aluminium greenhouses

Flat packed with flat glass

Slide along doors

There's hardly room for two

A watering can and aubergine

Tomato plants for mistletoe

Stories of the war

Interviews with the grand-daughter

Time to take a break

Move on from the seagulls overhead

I've lost my thread

There's hardly room for two

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Black bird on a green house roof

Indifferent to explanation

You were determined to break the code

That of the unbroken glass

The unspoken class

Just because you can see

Does not mean that you can have

Even the meanest dictator

Sometimes missed

While he grabbed

And if the attraction

Is another life of more than simple movement

A fraction of your time, ad infinitum

Must be left to pass

In trust you can see

More than all possessions

Even the smooth sophisticate

So so meekly kissed

While he stabbed

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