Cloud Painter
Jane Flander (1940- )
_Suggested by the life and art of John Constable_
At first, as you know, the sky is incidental--
a drape, a backdrop for trees and steeples.
Here an oak clutches a rock (already he works outdoors),
a wall buckles but does not break,
water pearls through a lock, a haywain trembles.
The pleasures of landscape are endless. What we see
around us should be enough.
Horizons are typically high and far away.
Still, clouds let us drift and remember. He is, after all,
a miller's son, used to trying
to read the future in the sky, seeing instead
ships, horses, instrument of flight.
Is that his mother's wash flapping on the line?
His schoolbook, smudged, illegible?
In this period the sky becomes significant.
Cloud forms are technically correct--mare's tails,
sheep-in-the-meadow, thunderheads.
You can almost tell which scenes have been interrupted
by summer showers.
Now his young wife dies.
His landscapes achieved belated success.
He is invited to join the Academy. I forgot
whether he accepts or not.
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 163.26.52.130