another green man / woodwose. He looks pretty sulky, I think it’s because he knows that Autumn is here and it has come too soon.
Ted Hughes, “Wodwo”
LANGUAGEPOETRY
What am I? Nosing here, turning leaves over
Following a faint stain on the air to the river’s edge
I enter water. Who am I to split
The glassy grain of water looking upward I see the bed
Of the river above me upside down very clear
What am I doing here in mid-air? Why do I find
this frog so interesting as I inspect its most secret
interior and make it my own? Do these weeds
know me and name me to each other have they
seen me before do I fit in their world? I seem
separate from the ground and not rooted but dropped
out of nothing casually I’ve no threads
fastening me to anything I can go anywhere
I seem to have been given the freedom
of this place what am I then? And picking
bits of bark off this rotten stump gives me
no pleasure and it’s no use so why do I do it
me and doing that have coincided very queerly
But what shall I be called am I the first
have I an owner what shape am I what
shape am I am I huge if I go
to the end on this way past these trees and past these trees
till I get tired that’s touching one wall of me
for the moment if I sit still how everything
stops to watch me I suppose I am the exact centre
but there’s all this what is it roots
roots roots roots and here’s the water
again very queer but I’ll go on looking
* * *
Beautiful as always, I love the light and mystery you achieve in your paintings. Ted Hughes poem works well in tandem, you seem to have gathered the liquid stream of consciousness into pure Being .
Many thanks for your wonderful response to my paintings, a great ego boost! 😊
Lovely, insightful comment from my dear friend Liz in France. Couldn’t have put it better. Always loved that poem, and your painting does it justice.
Thank you Clive,it was a lovely comment indeed. Thank you too for taking the time, another little boost for a solitary painter 🙂