E·ratio

Issue 19

 

 

 

Art & World (Postscript Poems)

 

Drawn from the letters of the late Canadian artist Jack Siegel, with permission of his friends Mary & Richard Keshen

 

Sean Howard

 

 

 

 

i

 

 

Park bench –

God

Alone…

 

*

 

‘Jack’ – it’s the being

I’m frightened of!

 

*

 

The strange patience

Of light

 

*

 

The strokes I suffer

Every day

 

*

 

Exhausted –

With the world

Every step…

 

 

 

ii

 

 

Art – suddenly,

The difficult

Going…

 

*

 

Cruel –

Faces

Whittled

 

*

 

Mob –

Self-

Portrait

 

*

 

All these years, the

Single soul…

 

*

 

The world

I sometimes see

After work

 

 

 

iii

 

 

‘Loner’?  –

Society

For the blind!

 

*

 

Boxes &

Boxes of

People

 

*

 

(Though I wanted to laugh

With those broken…)

 

*

 

Crayons –

Jack in

The box

 

*

 

The life

Time in

Line…

 

 

 

iv

 

 

Toronto –

Fertile

Ground?

 

*

 

‘Rose

Dale’ – the

Artist asks,

Where?

 

*

 

Art? My

Present

Condition

 

*

 

(Not pregnant, but

Always expecting!)

 

*

 

Exhausting –

My friends sitting

For me while I talk

 

 

 

v

 

 

The artist trying

To control the mob…

 

*

 

Postwar –

The dead

Quiet?

 

*

 

(Seeing what

I mean?)

 

*

 

Until, my eyes

Fed up with light…

 

*

 

Abandoned –

The world on

My doorstep

 

 

 

vi

 

 

The only child

I chose to be

 

*

 

Betrayed  –

The boy tearing

The teddy…

 

*

 

‘With these hands’ –

The crayon

Self

 

*

 

Death taking

Shape from me

 

*

 

& God is being

 

Sold every day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sean Howard is the author of Local Calls (Cape Breton University Press, 2009) and Incitements (Gaspereau Press, 2011).  His poetry has been published in numerous Canadian and international magazines, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and anthologized in The Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2011 & forthcoming). 

 

 


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