Tuesday 22 August 2006

Landscape with Rocks and Trees by Taylor Graham

[Cezanne, 1895]

I think I know this scene.
Boulders clutched by roots,
and the smooth trunks bent
around granite contours
by weather and the immeasurable
growth of rock.

Long green brush-strokes
convey a season’s yield of grasses.
If I looked away – say,
out the window
at my parceled acres
and the newly fallen pine –

and then if I looked back,
how much longer
would those brush-strokes be?
What new shadows,
what graceful bending tree
might have fallen?

Would someone
dreaming a different landscape
have come to drive the first
fencepost?
Would the barb-wire
already be strung?

Taylor Graham, California, USA



3 comments:

Crafty Green Poet said...

This is a wonderful, quietly powerful poem.

Jim said...

I'm a painter, this poem is a fine painting. Treat to my ears to see those sights, especially the landscape in combination with the interior, very personal.

Anonymous said...

A powerful poem indeed, and one which conveys the ideas within Cezanne's paintings beautifully...