"..bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle.."
--Pablo Neruda, "Lemons"
"Peg's Lemons" oil on board, 4x5"
A Lemon
a poem by Pablo Neruda
Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love's
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree's yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree's planetarium
"Barbarous gold" 4x5" oil on board. for sale
Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it-
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.
We open
the halves
of a miracle,
and a clotting of acids
brims
into the starry
divisions:
creation's
original juices,
irreducible, changeless,
alive:
so the freshness lives on
in a lemon,
in the sweet-smelling house of the rind,
the proportions, arcane and acerb.
"Marisa's Lemons" 5x7" oil on linen mounted on board, 2018
Cutting the lemon
the knife
leaves a little cathedral:
alcoves unguessed by the eye
that open acidulous glass
to the light; topazes
riding the droplets,
altars,
aromatic facades.
"Juicy Lemons" 6x8" oil on linen mounted on board, 2018
So, while the hand
holds the cut of the lemon,
half a world
on a trencher,
the gold of the universe
wells
to your touch:
a cup yellow
with miracles,
a breast and a nipple
perfuming the earth;
a flashing made fruitage,
the diminutive fire of a planet.
"Lemon Wedge" 4x5" oil on board, 2018
"Helena's Teapot" oil on board, 8x10" 2017
"So sweet is their flesh..." oil on board, 8x10" 2017