Sunday, May 12, 2019

Brenda Smith's "Dear Carl" after Roger Lee Ivens



Brenda Smith photographed in Hickory Museum of Art on October 13, 2018.


DEAR CARL—When I can’t get my head above the earth 
By Brenda Smith
after Sun and Hands by Roger Lee Ivens


At least I can raise my arms.
My hands with the all-seeing eyes
yearn to look at the too-brilliant sun
grasp for the laden sky
full of simultaneous sun and stars.

Is this what happens when you use your hands to see?
A fresh scope and slant on the universe
heavens green, then briefly blue
fading into shades of autumn
as the light penetrates the earth.
Is this the origin of the seasons then,
the angle of the eyes of our hands
as we stretch toward the light?
We look backwards to look forward
and we truly see.
I reach North, eyes averted
and for the first time
see the sun’s third eye.
A thousand times past
squinting at her face
yet only when I shift and choose another angle
do I notice that all-seeing eye.
Sun, you cosmic know-it-all.





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