The Painter’s Eye
By spangled copse, grubbed out delves
past bosky stands
to the sound of distant bells
cross weeded streams
where Ophelia dreamed
sunlight makes its swaggering way
to light the stippled trunks
of youthful silver birches.
All this passed in blurring tones
thumbed in careless smirches.
The painter would have spent an hour
to dab a knife upon the smudges
scything colour from colours,
smearing them to get the changing hue.
The mood of light built up
like thoughts piling despair on loss.
Other pictures intervene.
Spattering rain upon the windscreen
stretches colours into different tensions
hard to tell the woodsman from the trees.
We see the gleaner’s grain
sheaved stalks and forked carts of corn
the horse its load across the field.
Now a lone tractor harvests the land
driver’s music clamped round his ears.
Then bonneted workers in shady groups
all talking with cooling jugs of beer
resting from the race
to get the crop before the rain
moonlight harvesting beneath the circling bats
the chasing of the rabbits and the rats.
Now we drive through Dedham Vale
speeding while the spider spins
missing where the wild things hale:
the shaggy ink cap, the ruddy darter,
hunting, skulking, lurking.
We could benefit to muse for half an hour
imagine Millais on the Hogsmill river
and on the River Stour
be arrested by Constable’s way of working.
Control
Waves turn and turn away.
Fingered water rattles pebbles
like rosaries in hallowed hands
sieving fizz through stones
that freeze and burn.
Day breaks on an empty beach.
There’s a flush on the horizon
a sculptor squeezing clay
reforming the world.
Local artists manifestos
pinned like Luther’s theses
fluttering on a church door.
Indulgent patient patrons
askance at rampant colours
in the swirling tide
try shoring up coasting artists
defying the curfew
on the town’s limits.
Paul Gerard Dalton is based in Southwest London, UK. His first selection of poetry ‘Fielding Memories, Poems and Other Recalls’ was published in April 2024. He is a singer songwriter guitarist and has two solo music albums available online at: paulgerarddalton.bandcamp.com. Recently he has turned to recording spoken word accompanied by tunes he has composed. His Facebook page is titled ‘Poems For The Many’ where he places early versions of unfinished work. In 2024, his poems have been published in The Cannon’s Mouth and The Crank.
Sparks of Calliope 