Corp’rate Day

thoughts on art and fiction

Bright Hook (excerpt)

Mar 19, 2020 Andrew Kerr, Ekphrasis, Writing as Creative Practice, Writing for Other Artists

 

[IV]

As for the light,
the light will not help you,
lyric it may be,
on the old wall,
in the nook where
the dust-clouds gather
(moutons the French call them‑
“little sheep”), the hissing
of these sad ciphers
at the end of “mist”
at the end of “dust”
will not help you either,

mud declining, on the whole,
to “hissing” and “misting”.

Mud is a very old
word for paint,
and, even on such days as you
are able to make it
hiss and shimmer,

the light will not help you—

©Laurence Figgis, 2020

Andrew Kerr, Untitled, 2019, acrylic, paper, wood, glue, 30.5 x 75 x 1.5 cm

 

This poem was commissioned for the monograph, Andrew Kerr, published by The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd. in 2020.  You can read the complete poem (of which this is a short excerpt) in the publication.