poemimage

The visual & the poetic.

Tag: visual poetry

The Pen & the Plan: @ 50% Complete

I am now 50% complete working on the B&W roll of 5′ X 33-35′ paper. When I complete this second roll of paper I will have a diptych. I considered a triptych but talked myself out of it.

Brushwork with inks & gouache + drawing with water-soluble graphite pencils create different blacks and different whites in contrast.

I repeat & develop two images that begin the first blue roll of paper. The moon-ish figure and the dna figure (below) & seen above.

https://poemimage.com/2023/05/01/druidica-blue-deja-vu-cave-art-for-the-new-psyche/

A fountain springs from ‘bird-human’s’ hand and at the same time is a swan’s neck.

Within the fountain or swan’s neck a series of images depict a beast ‘vomiting’ a seed which shoots into the earth (mound), takes root and rises.

The green bit of tape shows the 17′ mark. Animal shapes and double faces. A joker or fool. Figures in the mound. ‘Watery spray’ opening into what comes next…

Being 50% complete with this roll of paper equals being 50% through completing a triptych. The plan is for visual poetry on the third roll of paper. The challenge now, in completing the second roll of paper, is to move away from intricate detail.

The idea is to keep track of my hours (with the pen & the book) after each day’s effort.

I’ve organized (with high-tech paper clips) the rough sketches and ideas to complete the second roll of paper. I don’t know yet how I’ll use these ideas – deliberately composing or spontaneously expressing.

Previously in progress:

Beginning where I left off @ 25% with this face & beginning to elaborate.

Ceremonial crown inspired by the European deer-god idea Cernunnos. Antlers look branch-like as well.

Check out the previous work on this B&W roll of paper (and the blue roll of paper preceding it) @ https://poemimage.com/2024/01/25/the-pen-the-book-the-plan/

Building the figure & relationships between figures:

the flowers

In neon mystery the flowers explode.

In singularity the flowers explode.

edge, ledge & hedge

The proportional yet abstract face made of shapes like cactus or flowers,

perhaps a mask in commedia dell’arte,

*

or a book describing the famous wonders of the world,

thin as a snowflake, balanced on one edge,

tipping to one side diagonally & dampened by droplets

*

sliding down a stained blurry windowpane

pooling on the ledge, osmosis dampening

cream-coloured paper, flecked & rippled like grief or papyrus –

*

inscriptions of blue ink (messages of mysterious flavour)

to devour, to decipher (imagine the Hanging Gardens of Babylon)

& heaving your bag of magical tools to your shoulder

*

building a a sentient tunnel

disappeared beneath the waterfall of a viridian hedge foaming upon the lawn,

blotted by twilight & in the jasmine-scented shade shadowy moss

*

envelops a stone, upright, sunk into fertile soil &

inscribed with symbols of a fertile flavour –

*

I’m not being sentimental.

Face: mouth, nose, eye, and (tilted) eyebrow.

You Told Me You’d Be Home By Ten

Original

Transfiguration by Steven McCabe

A butterfly wing

Grazes your cheek

Travelling

Two thousand years

Per second.

My latest video poem (or film poem if you prefer). We originally filmed and recorded the drumming over two years ago for a different project which never saw the light of day. In the meantime I become interested in juxtaposing silent footage with live action. I realized we could use silent movie title cards for the poetry and not compete with the sound of drumming. The poem Transfiguration was originally published in my 1999 collection Radio Picasso (watershedBooks). My poetry videos can be found @ http://www.youtube.com/mccabesteven

 

« Goutte À Goutte », Plein verre, 1940 (May) by Pierre Reverdy, Translated by Pierre L’Abbé, 2011.

quartet

Drop by drop

drama

The habit of loving
The sap of fatigue

intersection

tritone

The torrents of sleep
In the pit of nefarious plans

shadowed a
If I had to give over the secret of the past
I would no longer fear the heaviness of blood

intersec  tion orange
Being alone
Sharpens revelations on the edges of the wind

white cracks copy
Weak and ugly
I sleep in gutters

new twin
Doubled, exposed to the weather
To the barbs of fate
To the blows of fortune

celtic animal
The bubbles of dark days burst in my hands
Life trembles irresolute on the edge of each sheet

mirrored

wash
Along the borders of the morning

wash
I no longer take a turn

wash

queen

The forms of hatred
Cheeks bulging with fire
These starving ovens

glassed

her wall

When love enlightened breathes on bitterness

a garish village
And dances on the dream-rope of nothingness

splash 3

face subtle

Pierre L’Abbé is a translator, a publisher, and the author of poetry and short story collections. He lives in Toronto.

final one

new carnival

When I began generating images for this Reverdy poem my focus was ‘self’ seeing ‘self.’ I wondered also if the poem was historical. I pictured incidents from World War Two. Or maybe psychological? The poem seemed to present an existentialism assuaged with the balm of cathartic love. And then because, coincidentally, I assembled this page on Easter Sunday, I considered (perhaps outlandishly) this being a dialogue between Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. In two voices. An end to their metaphysical, sexual, emotional love. Hmm…perhaps too literal. I wasn’t sure where metaphor began and personal voice ended. This began a chain of associations concerning language, representation, authenticity, double-identity, etc… and I was back at the idea of ‘self’ (whatever that is) seeing ‘self.’ You know that feeling you have when you look in a mirror? You know it’s you but you’re not quite sure who ‘you’ is. You see yourself experiencing an image of your self. So, as you can see, the poem presented a host of interpretive challenges. Pierre L’Abbe would know far more than me about this poem’s purpose. As always, I went with my intuitive response in creating images. In this case a face and a figure interact while constantly transforming.