John Moore: Portals (2013)

(The following poems were written in response to paintings by John Moore.)

Dye House

Segments, broken into pieces, long view is still
Central spot, perspective lines, you feel walking
Through, skylit room, doors distant, in corner,
Purple cloth, green wall, all smells dusty, distant
Memory through, endless chambers, where we
Once resided, not lived, thought, in friendship,
Could return, endless receding, but heart exists,
How things are built, structures, materials, again
Walk into spaces, abrupt from consideration,
All old, but work space, allows re-entry vision
 

All Souls' Day

The field is used for all things, dreams, dams,
Walks, talks, attacks, insults, games occlude,
Trains carry but don't leave, smoking results,
Paper, high, curved, dense dwelling, random
Flow is the center, use, fence with little lights,
Season here is bent, what are those fronts,
Square, rectangle, jiggling rhythm of stacks
Inject sky's giant backing, occlude, pressed,
Clouded, a dance long ago, festivity, season,
Curling, lifted, a talk a space provides, cipher

 

Frankford Station

Grid of glass, transport, street untransformed,
Each a picture, world, squiggle, wrinkle, gray,
Arch floating, twin teddy fluff, airs, skies, wobble,
But whole is picture, dimensional, tree shafted,
As once was self, walking, here inside, slight re-
Turn, placid, to see what there is, tree shafted,
Mailbox, pole, red churchhouse door, figure
Distant on track, school, melted, but those walls
Exist, out there, someone sees, hides behind,
Even direction, here, in shade, quiet, hid inside
 

Opacity

The way the sky lifts, what one is seeing, once
Old pulls, crinkle, day after day, s-loop turned
Once, in the old days, now again, pulled, loop
And there, our culture in arches, columned
Reminder, shades, only a drawing? no a myth
That renders and stays, shading song, mirth
Width that heightens, in a hand, pushed to
End, Half clear, half divided, muddied, pulse
In, top to bottom, hulled, in advance, pulled
Reaped, anguish, languor, pumped again full

Turnstile

Over the stiles, far away, through field, horizon
Way to pass, through music’s hold, loom, risen
We test, pulses pass, that was sky, goldened at
End, province predicted, tasted, alas, not seen
But in other, movie, attended, class, forthwith
Horizontals pass through, verticals, all elicited
Orisons sexual, rite, imitated, myth, elongate
At one end a lapse, another, lopped rhythm
Prison previous through to other, acquaint
Reeve willing through, a passage, portal hint

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