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.
