Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Rob Gourley

“Sunspots” by David A. Pattison
(ceramic multi-fired vase, ht. ~45cm)


Squiggles and Dots

Accented in places by fleshy motions
and a lustrous glaze of Duncan gold,
a circus of squiggles maps abstract notions.

These brushstroked lines of Venetian blue
cavort whimsically over terrain
that’s dappled in a pine-pollen hue,

As if their capricious array could plot
the bizarre photon pyrotechnics
when solar flare becomes a sunspot.





Murasaki Shikibu and the Night Guards
   (Kyoto, Heian Period)

If this moon-song carries to the garden
it may further delay the night Guardsmen.
The maidservant heard fallen leaves rustling,
saw a soldier’s hands pilfering chrysanthemum.

Out there, by the bridge they’re lingering:
we listen to a Guardsman’s flute trilling;
I reach for the koto and gently strum.
… Senseless dipping my brush in ink bowl when
I know not which to favor among those Guardsmen.




Ponderosa Gestalt

Brisk gusts have the pine boughs oscillating.
… May have been that those two pines were seedlings
which grew, one but inches from the other.

Across the byway from Frank Fink’s cabin
this pair sways their shoulders in unison;
yet, up to the waist they’ve grown together.

As icon for supportive marriage,
the pines make a somewhat quirky image,
dancing to the beat of windy weather.




Observations in Marshlands
         near Grays Harbor

Raccoon’s hips trundle [dark, brief glimpse]
    its body down past tall grass
    shortly before dawn ….

Doves – [leaf motion in pm breeze]
    two couples Sun tucked-back wings
    camouflaged on silver Alder limbs.

“A whitetail Doe carrying you know what, alive [whispered]
    between & below milk-chocolate hindquarters,
    is here at the edge of clearing.”

Munching the Blackberries’ fresh green, spring growth   [afternoon, close-up]
    her face opens, encloses – teeth pull away
    leafy mouthfuls she forages
    and somehow avoids stabbing her wet-black nose !

Up & down flight of a white Butterfly [warm, light breeze]
    garners attention.
Know this wild garden has nary Onion
    nor Cabbage.  Instead,
Watch the insect alight on Blackberry
    canes starting to bloom.

Yesterday Deer came into the small meadow here [evening]
    several times for grazing reed canary Grass,
    and after our supper for a long while were near.
    Today none at all wander toward my lens glass.

Rows of pilings muddle tidal flats [Chehalis mouth]
    where river becomes Grays Harbor.

1 comment:

  1. 1, 2, & 3 composed about 6 yrs ago as part of a sequence called JOGS, and "Observations" composed during this yrs' Feb-Jul changes of season.

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