In this climate the weather is predicable
To walk from the house to the garden is to walk into rain.
To walk into rain is to retreat to the kitchen again.
I've been told life is a circle: I've also been told
an ellipse is difficult to define on paper. It is necessary to hold
the wrist loose; to keep the pen firm between thumb and finger
the shaft pointing a direct line to the right shoulder.
To tread a fine oval is simple and usual: I pass the dusty mint,
the unused bricks now brambled to the ground, fill the bin
with old news and yesterday's leavings, look up and feel the pips
of a second shower on my skin... I grave an ellipse
each time I return by the old stone step and the pale hydrangea.
Massed weeds matt in the rain like spinach. I wonder why I came here
why I stay. Under this spitting sky the difficulty is
to reject the narrow nib and the scratching quill, to mix
a palette of burnt sienna, alazarin and chrome yellow. I must refuse
this landscape and prepare a canvas; choose
five or six great hog brushes, squeeze colour from a tube and paint
a panorama of golden kingcups and a tree of pomegranate.
Page(s) 21
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