Paintings and a Poem

By Annemarie Dietzgen

(some prose on painting)

Sometimes, when I paint,
I dance a dance of counterpoint
              where I begin with an X,
              and  counter with a Y:
As in the movement of a line
              where,
              the vertical stroke demands to be followed by one good horizontal;
              or, maybe, the horizontal begs to be slashed
                            right down the middle by a vertical;
              or, maybe, even, out of the blue,
                            an exhilarated diagonal liberates itself and shoots off the canvas.
As in a duet of complements
              where,
              the yellow gets sick of being yellow and demands a splash of purple;
              or, maybe, a blue hankers after an interruption of orange;
              or, red won’t go anywhere without green.
As in shadow and light
              where,
              the dark insists upon at least
              a spot of pure white aligned against it
              so as to become the blackness that it is.
In this way, the painting progresses in its spiraling search for balance
             Until the need for a final dangling element, the final touch
             a point without a counter 
(the balance of the entirety is threatened!)
             but, no, the magic holds
                            barely.

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