Stillness at Noon
Watercolour mountains today
Smokey blue tiering to Payne's/ dove/ chalk/ grey
Where horizon tints the sky
Chinese backcloth mirage floating
But vibrant in the foreground
Palette knife thick Van Gogh in oils
Cezanne shimmer in the noon day
Scorched stoned in the sunlight
Vines, pines, hill-side marchers
Sunflower battalions obedient
Turning eyes right sun bright
Earth rust-baked, dry dust-caked
In silent heat throbbing
No movement, be still
The landscape's surviving
Conserving its forces
Holding its breath in the fierceness of noon
Sending a message, a balm for the spirit
Feeding the soul, in the quiet
Be still
28th July 2009 Hounoux
Watercolour mountains today
Smokey blue tiering to Payne's/ dove/ chalk/ grey
Where horizon tints the sky
Chinese backcloth mirage floating
But vibrant in the foreground
Palette knife thick Van Gogh in oils
Cezanne shimmer in the noon day
Scorched stoned in the sunlight
Vines, pines, hill-side marchers
Sunflower battalions obedient
Turning eyes right sun bright
Earth rust-baked, dry dust-caked
In silent heat throbbing
No movement, be still
The landscape's surviving
Conserving its forces
Holding its breath in the fierceness of noon
Sending a message, a balm for the spirit
Feeding the soul, in the quiet
Be still
28th July 2009 Hounoux
From Jenny.
ReplyDeleteDid "Lettres de mon Moulin" come from Hounoux? You convey the same sort of timeless peace and tranquillity. I'm trying hard not to be envious of your sunshine - we look like being wet and cold for a week or so yet! But it's lovely to know that warm places do exist!
Thank you for this beautiful poem. I especially enjoyed the Van Gogh in oils and the Cezanne shimmer. I love what both of those do in their landscapes!
From Andy
ReplyDeleteRe-read and just loved yesterday's poem - but what is Payne?
Payne's grey is a darkish grey artists colour.The effect I was trying to convey was of the shimmering almost mirage of tiers of mountains, as you often see in Chinese watercolour. This contrasted strongly with the vibrant bold colours of the foothills and the fields which looked much more like a textured oil painting.
From Linda;
ReplyDeleteLovely poems. Really good Sally. Seriously. But what do you mean by a Chinese backcloth?
(Linda also sent the photograph illustrating the poem above)
Further comment from Linda in response to our discussion re this poem, in which she quotes an artist friend:
ReplyDeleteSee what you think of this from his professional artist friend in Spain:
"............. something that has haunted me for a couple of years & it still involves pine trees. When it's belting hot as now, there is a wierd light in the pines, particularly a group of them viewed with the light full on. Even though the harsh sunlight makes everything starkly contrasting (the shadows are solid!) when one looks at the pines there is an odd hazy shimmering (even when the trees aren't moving in a wind) almost like a mist, it's an odd blue/violet colour. It is I'm sure more to do with heat than light, though not like a heat haze, I wonder if it's something to do with the resin. I have tried to capture it in paintings but it has eluded me totally, I'm trying to do it yet again. I've never seen any other painter manage this. I never experienced this in Italy, but there weren't so many pines en masse there where I was."