The Art of Stopping Time

time painted… becomes motionless and we worship its silence cut and frail and drink the earth of meaning that traps us in color like fire drawn through heaven’s aperture only to rise and encroach upon the growing darkness ‘til red, her gentle breath our witness to bear kills the time that seeks to ensnare time painted… in us spills through empty space the ocean wall god caught in a shell’s eye the universe, blood and sea winding whorl form and Fibonacci her violent knot high within the sun until cold and gentle calm dreams awry arise and break in flowers glade that strange inferno beauty lit rushing to meet her death these are the times I hold my breath now I, in silence, bleed my art painting time to stop its heart that quivers in the whorled shell darkness risen, darkness fell time divine design the hand strokes of light, descending sand never to crack the final stroke lest me the foe tempo provoke