She spoke with fingers unwound
My rooms are dusty
Vessel
Seed sower implanting a memory
Home is a hearth
We set sail
We set sail on undulating waters.
Our momentum is interrupted.
Teetering on a frozen crest of waves with buckling knees;
a freeze is chasing us, arresting our expedition.
Ice crystal fingers punch through the cabin taking the roof off.
We are all surprised by the vitality of this icicle fiend
and wonder how we will thaw.
We wonder what caused Winter to pursue us like a hunter.
Our enquiry hangs in the glacial sky, and we disembark perplexed.
The voluminous night is dense,
I can point my finger through it and feel particles drag.
I wind my finger circumspectly.
My body follows effecting a somersault demonstration
crafted in the thick air.
This is how it is done, I say to the upturned faces below.
I’m getting the hang of it now and stoop like a peregrine
tearing a strip out of the sky,
revealing a new world.
I am reforging a tuppence in the afterglow,
creating delicate perpendicular shards:
a copper city built on bronze substratum;
a maquette minted in the mind's eye.
There are aspects shutting down;
I have decommissioned them at this time.
Withdrawing resources from certain quarters
to address core needs formerly built on sands.
Winter’s breath is upon me in this metaphysical vacuum.
I will make my fire here.
Our colloquy
In this series, Golden Colloquy, each painting illustrates a poem and depicts a dialogue with the subconscious. Entered into through altered states of consciousness: lucid dreaming or astral projection. The titles are lines from the poems. Each painting 30 x 30 cm, oil on board.
