Wang (eighth century) is revered as one of China's greatest classical landscape poets and painters




A Wang Wei Scene

 

Whereas truth - well, truth as I saw it

was expressed as stillness.

     Louis, Gluck, "The Sword In The Stone"

 

 

Sometimes words are not enough, then or now,

The light strange this morning, the landscape

Almost unfamiliar, ancient, foreign, faded haze

Heavy with heat hovering in mist above the pond,

The edges of the shore framed by water lilies

And reeds that could be Chinese brushstrokes

On silken shimmer of clear water, and two geese

Perfectly still, side by side, poised and posed

As in a painting capturing that one moment

Of anticipation and delicate balance so real

You can see beyond it to the geese gliding

Even now into the next moment of motion,

Their wings stroking the still water, rippling

The surface and the deeper light, then rising,

Not leaving but entering the scene's completion,

Lifting the tip of his brush from the ink stone.





Poetry by countryfog
Read 634 times
Written on 2015-04-15 at 15:50

dott Save as a bookmark (requires login)
dott Write a comment (requires login)
dott Send as email (requires login)
dott Print text


Jamsbo Rockda The PoetBay support member heart!
Beautiful description and imagery :)
2015-04-16


josephus The PoetBay support member heart!
Reading this I find a story about Merlin coming to mind. Throughout his life he sought solitude and silence. After the death of Arthur and Camelot destroyed he returned to Avalon to end his days there in silence as the custodian of Excaliber.
2015-04-15



I think one gift of a good poet is to be able to recognize the importance of stillness. So many poems describe the flight of the geese or the grace of their movement in the water, but the first thing that strikes the reader in this poem is the stillness. I suppose this is why painting is also so appealing; it offers a freeze-frame, so that our eyes and minds have time to savor the scene. It's only until the end of the poem that the action is set into motion. Well done.
2015-04-15