Wayne Amtzis poems

Wayne is an old friend who has been inspired to write some poems based on my work (unfortunately for my ego he writes about other artists too.)

His web site is :

http://www.photo-poems.com/index.html

EMBODYING MYTH

A human mask: a peacock-tailed cow gazes at us

Shank-ed and torso-ed within, a peacock-effaced woman dances;

Bird of dreams hoisted on her shoulder and outreaching arm

A key around the cow's neck, a lotus for teats

and a hand, like those that smear the space behind her,

stamped on the cow's hind leg

Heavy, stable, secure

implacable presence, not a cow

or a lion, but cow

-mother, lion

-mother, that will not

abandon her progeny--though torn from her

they be scattered over the earth

Hands on her body and dwelling place,

signs of the forces she submits to, the violence willed against her

Peaceful, yet indomitable

There's no moving these mythic beings

from their rightful place at the center of creation

To become one with the cow mother,

the peacock dreamer, the woman dancing, the lotus nurturing,

take the key from the cow's neck,

and remove your handprints from her thigh

Soon…soon… For…

Familial and haunting, magnetic and morph-like,

this unaccountable creative force,

these emblems of forbearance, signs for what outlasts

and precedes us,

Ragini's menagerie,

so familiar and unfamiliar,

from another world, are revelatory glimpses of the world we inhabit

or (like Pig with topi and shoe)

explicit condemnation of those who can no longer

dissemble that world

RAGINI'S MENAGERIE


Flower bearing snake

and distant city; beneath your shadow,

a man and woman, a river flowing

Snake-tailed monkeys dance,

rubbing bodies, rubbing lips, the city in their hands

How is it these beasts, feigning innocence, defy gravity,

never falling from the world they trample?

Flame-footed, beak-footed, lotus-footed, stair-footed

female-faced lion, the sun balanced on your snout, your tail aflame,

your many lucky numbers secreted within

Legs shackled, turning inward and away,

your bird-beaked and winged-women, keys in hand,

gather force

--horse--

that will not be tamed

Big-bellied pig, your sock & shoe-fitted foot

strutting sure, how happily you balance and sniff that worm gnawed apple

So full of shit, flowers and weeds root on your back

Your topi seems out of place. So small a cap for one so large in girth

and single-minded in greed

More pictures in
http://picasaweb.google.com/ragini.grela