Poetry

abstract #2

‘Abstract’ is a word which is now most frequently used to
express only the type of outer form of a work of art; this
makes it difficult to use it in relation to the spiritual
vitality or inner life which is the real sculpture.
— Barbara Hepworth ‘Sculpture’

(i)

pavan (unfinished prototype)
the dressing gown of water drips to my feet
revealing the journeys that you didn't take
as my aluminium gauze body wasn't safe
in the place where the Mobius twist meets

I still long for your yellow plastic car
to fasten onto one of my Scalextrik ribs
dance around me and tightly grip
while someone else squeezes the trigger

(ii)

hollow form with inner form (plaster)

I am the walnut in your dreams
that doesn't open properly
refuses to unclutch the kernel

drowns its brown brain shell
in brilliant white glossv
to camouflage in snowdrops
a cloud of hands

the way I am fashioned
reveals the journey
broken nail wedged in parapet
the two holes an attempt
to make me breathe

(iii)

three forms in Echelon (a maquette)

they communicate arrive by magic
held together by six strings
salvaged from an abandoned banjo
planted under papier maché skin

there is something in its way
an almost curve appears
two wires meet
do not touch

ear shaped archipelagos
how I long to be reborn
as a leafcutter ant
scurry across your almost lobe
creep along the metal ropes
the weight of nature like a flag
against the kingdom of your scaffold

Gary Hughes