Painting the Mind's Eye
Posted: July 8th, 2009, 10:18 am
I seemed to be caught
in the vibration between
yin and yang, searching
by feel for a safe crevice
to place a climber's boot,
between the insistence
of granite and the comfort
of down, aware of the earth's
rotation, her gravitational
impact on my clenched fingers,
teeth, yet oddly unafraid
of metamorphosis I knew
to be underway, and I could
no longer focus on objects
directly in front of me, only
the surrounding environment
that I knew somehow held all
the clues, and I could see for
the very first time the limits
of the western cult of personality,
nothing more, nothing less, there
in the objects waiting for these brand
new eyes, and I was sure that I would
never stare again at images deliberately
placed in the foreground by manipulative
artists to try to capture my attention, I knew
now the beauty of the painting was lying
in the depths of field, and I was determined
to not become a duped art lover ignoring
the ninety five- percent to see only the five
that stood out there in the front of my
imagination, just standing there beseeching
me to train my eyes to see only her and nothing
more, I instinctively knew to do this would mean
I could only see the body of Venus, missing
the immense soul of the Botticelli landscape.
in the vibration between
yin and yang, searching
by feel for a safe crevice
to place a climber's boot,
between the insistence
of granite and the comfort
of down, aware of the earth's
rotation, her gravitational
impact on my clenched fingers,
teeth, yet oddly unafraid
of metamorphosis I knew
to be underway, and I could
no longer focus on objects
directly in front of me, only
the surrounding environment
that I knew somehow held all
the clues, and I could see for
the very first time the limits
of the western cult of personality,
nothing more, nothing less, there
in the objects waiting for these brand
new eyes, and I was sure that I would
never stare again at images deliberately
placed in the foreground by manipulative
artists to try to capture my attention, I knew
now the beauty of the painting was lying
in the depths of field, and I was determined
to not become a duped art lover ignoring
the ninety five- percent to see only the five
that stood out there in the front of my
imagination, just standing there beseeching
me to train my eyes to see only her and nothing
more, I instinctively knew to do this would mean
I could only see the body of Venus, missing
the immense soul of the Botticelli landscape.