Thursday, July 19, 2012

To Paint Forgetting

photoart: sharon auberle


To Paint Forgetting
by Barb Cranford

Gesso a long narrow canvas thickly
and embed a gaggle of dirty bits
of rag, shards of bone, illegible lists.

Smear it carelessly 
with pale tints of some color 
I do not like––ochre perhaps.

There must be a broken grid––
maze after maze leading
to empty rooms without doors.

Lurid bursts of yellow, orange
and red will flash and fade,
throwing fearsome shadows.

A few gray feathers will float down
from a strange bird beating its wings
against the frame, top left.

I wrote down these instructions once,
but I don't remember why.

~ first published in FAR FROM HERE