Details |
Juraj Kuniak Poem
To pick up a line and take it for a stroll.
The essential is within, the mystics say,
but equally important is the outside:
a stunning summer sky, two wind-whipped clouds,
in the intense green background a dazzling yellow field.
The line crosses dead centre. To draw breath for surfaces,
smooth and cross-hatched: first impressions of place.
A distant rumbling. Scene changed by invisible stagehands.
Gadflies in sorties before the storm, a frenzy,
a slaughter: chaos linked up.
A flash on the horizon: a zig-zag line.
I set my face for rain. Paul notices a girl
with curly hair, fleeing: a spiraling movement.
A bridge comes into sight: row of curves. Lines
in his sketchbook appear in the richest profusion,
fading and gaining power, restrained and articulate move
and countermove. The rain’s blurring it all. The feeling of space
intensifies. Mesh and brickwork, when one returns to town.
Voice. Polyphony. Strange face. Smiling greeting.
Above us the stars are revealed: scattered points.
The painter’s tree grows from roots, but its crown
is a trip to the land of better knowledge. A flame-burst
directed by hand. A symphony of forms. A good thing
like a guiding thread in the dense bush at twilight.
A joyful equivalence. A whole.
Copyright © Juraj Kuniak | Year Posted 2023
|
Details |
Juraj Kuniak Poem
I am fascinated by a place where the sky meets the sea.
The line of the horizon. Above it, seagulls, airplanes and the clouds
are hovering. Beneath is water filled with sharks,
octopus and deadly jellyfish.
But it can be turned around: Above hurricanes, whirlwinds, cyclones,
storms, scribbles of lightning… Beneath dolphins, the enchanting
Great Barrier Reef, the calm of the underwater depths…
Above there is not only good and beneath there is not only evil.
Neither is God above and the devil beneath.
Both God and the devil are everywhere and in everything,
penetrating into the gist of the matter, all the way into a man’s soul
and man chooses: God or the devil.
I love God. But what is the devil for?
To free up space for free will?
Free will brought me here.
I am gazing at the horizon’s line and I can’t get enough of it.
Copyright © Juraj Kuniak | Year Posted 2023
|