Rupert Loydell is a poet, writer, artist and teacher (contact details below) who I have known for many years. Yesterday he sent me his response to my show ‘The Secret Worth A Thousand’. Here it is:
THE SECRET
WORTH A THOUSAND
Kate Walters, Newlyn Art Gallery, January 2013.
parked in
the usual road
early for
your exhibition
fantastic curve
of the bay
cold water
dogs and gulls
hiss of the sea
white noise
dirty orange
pale snow light
too cold to write
or draw outside
•
surrounded by garden
amplified sounds
of the garden
as if the act
of reproducing the garden
is the garden
in the garden
nature is magic
by itself
•
a confusion of
dogs and deer
of animal
and spiritual
a confusion
of beasts
a bestowal
of divinity
impenetrable
mysticism
theology of goddess,
animal and earth
reliant on
intuitive feeling
what an artist knows
a personal symbolism
excluding non-believers
alarming the uninitiated
the only life
she knows
•
The horse with a womb
the horse with a woman
who looked like a leaf
who has become a leaf
and lives inside the horse
the horse that ascended
and became light
the horse that remained
in the imagination
and in the earth
the fantastical breath
of life in the paint
the words on the page
in the books on the table
asking to be read
the heating’s strange roar
sucking air out of the room
an echo of echoes
a pouring out of self
shamanic voice stilled
a quiet voice
in the dark
of animal skin
one shaft of light
on the dark waves
•
the deer
licks the doe
like a lover
•
bird as angel
in sacred tree
working itself
into a state of mind
world shaken off
earth left behind
•
owl bird
feather face
dancing in a nest
of misplaced beasts
•
allocating
what is due
to the beasts
and all that grows
simple movement
translated as dance
the buzz of a bee
considered as music
anthropomorphism
as a way of life
© Rupert M Loydell
Rupert Loydell is a poet and painter. His Tower of Babel artist’s book-in-a-box was recently published by Like This Press. Details at www.likethispress.co.uk/publications/rupertloydell