Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Canvass of Salvador Dali



What painter ever painted stars,
dipped deep oil-pots, brushed infant spheres,
cold explosive dwarfs into being?

Only their mismeant notion onto subtly insufficient canvas.

God-fire

Hanging from invisible cosmic wires and comet tails,
echoes in a seamless void,
giving eternally, consuming nothing,
hinting ancient birth, defying death
or enveloping cold?

Falling, crashing dismal heights to glorious rent ground,
careening like a tumbling Lucifer to rip through waiting Earth
and reach its cousin core, create damnation and fire by its own heat.

Stand a guard over Eden, search all ways
and wave an infinite blazing brand of star-stuff, Salvador;
consume eternal things into a single point by your collapse,
tear the curtains of God's space and find in dissolution
meaning, or a portal to some brighter place,
and I will follow every pathwayed creed
to realize where you are.

What painter ever painted stars?


2 comments:

  1. Do you like Salvador Dali's work? It sounds like you do, or at least like you find lots of meaning and significance in his work and you want to know where he was coming from to produce stuff like that.

    I don't want to get arrogant or overconfident, but I kinda feel like I get this one more or less. Of course I have no idea what the significance is to you personally (which I think matters even if you don't ;P) but there's only a few lines or phrases where I'm really confused about what they could possibly mean.

    That being said, I like how you bookend the piece with your question (a thought-provoking one on several levels by the way) and the fact that, the content is actually really simple once you can take in all the beautiful, creative, and descriptive language and phrases. Simple but not boring.
    "tear the curtains of God's space and find in dissolution
    meaning, or a portal to some brighter place,
    and I will follow every pathwayed creed
    to realize where you are."

    I love this whole idea.

    Have you ever considered trying to write in shorter sentences? I realize that a huge part of your style is defining exactly the feelings/emotions/images you want to be associated with your word or concept (painting stars: dipped deep oil-pots, brushed infant spheres, cold explosive dwarfs) which requires long sentences and lots of commas. But I was just wondering what it would look like if you tried shorter sentences, and if it would be easier to read and start to grasp the first time if you did. Just a thought.

    Beautiful once again. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Falling, crashing dismal heights to glorious rent ground,
    careening like a tumbling Lucifer to rip through waiting Earth
    and reach its cousin core, create damnation and fire by its own heat."


    Amazing simile, and just great imagery throughout...even by your usual standards, this A-level material...

    Oh, and Joanna, your analysis, as always, is very insightful...thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete