an old man on the riverbank - seferis

I want nothing more than to speak simply
to be granted that grace
because we've loaded even our story
with so much music it's slowly sinking

rest

of it
often

__________________________________


time to

put to

__________________________________

assured

in peace

feel

sick
happy
wet
mud

eyes


what
stones
chosen

stories

lies

simply unknown

will
the stream, he said

whether dream says so or no

the red stone

knew it was
hers

sores

Orlando -
diabetic
lesions
on legs of
Disney World
walkers

She told
of a man
with a broken neck left to die.

Hadn't seen
sores like those
(in Denmark)
for thirty years.

nearly eighty

her
skin
eyes
teeth

clear
white

doesn't smoke or drink

turns her cheek
when granddaughter
wishes to kiss
her
lips

bought
Egyptian cotton
in Cairo this year
long
white
dress

says out loud
it shall be my shroud

listening

far from home



words

thoughts



l   i   s   t   e   n   i   n   g

2 nights ago

tree top tall

out there in the dark
watching me
this place

no fear
it or I

something from earth and water
that doesn't kill
lives
lives
here

flashback

A  room
where
fear entered my body.

It was all, all.
Mine
to take or break.
Mine.
It said
you are mine.

It was mine again last year
and this.
I have lost my innocence.
Three times.

Three times!
Too much

Σ'αγαπώ (i love you)

ἀγάπη

which in Vulgate caritas

though

within it

eros held

that

lovingkindness

gathered too

much

misericordia

chesed

which,

when

wound round 

the wounds of

the world

is

θέλημα

desire!

Σ'αγαπώ

encompassing

(nothing)

Everything.

stream dream

linved
in living colour

had a conversation

it
said

don't dread
looking into things

place

your heart here
next to the stream
it rained for hours into the night
what
does
the water pray?

one foot
next to
in front
behind
the Other

boundaries
light fires
last night
watchful waiting

this morning dry

pray

one foot crosses uncrosses
pushes up
with the Other

boundaries
ashes
light
no
more
waiting

1
2
108
1
2
108

horses

in all horses


roan
paint
palomino
dunskin

among many variant mutations

merton asked what
4
qualities drive the soul -


love
joy
fear
grief



if we color
them
horses are
never white
really

out there on the mesa

running wildly

the little black dog in a dream

ran round and round

no bigger than a fingernail

spaniel i think

who stepped on it?
broke its tiny leg

its terrible cries

what could be done for the pain
that wouldn't kill
such a small creature?

i

didn't

know

what to do

brother david

"Our very life depends on everything recurring 'til we answer from within."
-Robert Frost

Vinegar in the dishwater-
the glasses shine.

Pots and pans
carry
prayers to the dinner table
and the cupboard
where they rest.

Washing
grace
wears away the stone

one sinkful at a time.

clear

clear


then
clear
comes
(and it
will
go
again)

clear
comes

full corn moon

in september
3 sisters
and
the black rice

ready, gathering

fish in earth
grain in water

geese and marten

moles

the wolves are full

deer by the oven

last berries

brown.

store more.

moons

Hollufgaard moons

August 1st	Full Sturgeon Moon	11:28 pm
August 31st	Full Blue Moon	9:58 am
September 29th	Full Harvest Moon	11:19 pm
October 29th	Full Hunter's Moon	3:50 pm

waxing crescent

filling up

quietly

the

rain

isn't

hydraulic conversations

under pressure
under water
color without
color within
over under
on
on
understood
to be
stuck
not moving
not still
not stagnant


unknown


resisting
movement
from
within

We fear

the most surprising things;

for example,

starting a conversation

with a strange stream.

painting

season

dark

no night

no waves

resound

echo

approach color

approach

surface

with
tools
with
eyes.

too much baking soda (natron)

For meget bagepulver!

use lemon to hide the taste

bøg
their leaves
eaten when young

pindsvin
living on the green mound

æbler
among us

smør
usaltet

hvedmel
havre
en ovn

a business meeting
in the wood
without
hejs or ties

just
pies
and

hedgehogs

H.C.

in sanskrit
4
s  w a  n
s
worth
1
in the
bush

water notes

1

has memory
a history of relationships
clusters with the world
that come and go

an alphabet
a sentence
changeable as

ocean blue salty
greenish hue fresh

the mind sweetens it
661
won hyo's gourd

1472
is it true
karl gastinsis
1632
is it true
Ganz
in
water

van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)

observer revealed

recollecting

as we are

changes

water appears

white

or 

on ancient mesa

as dust

coming from blue light

angles and hate destroy its symmetry

detirrium2O

love and thank you expand it

love and thank you expand it

analysis

transforms phenotype

simultaneaously

collective

perceptive

instructive

it learns

it learns

emotions as waves and particles

c  o  n  s  c  i  o  u  s  n  e  s  s 

is in the world

is in the water

is the same

is the same

a malleable structural tsunami

2

natural water is flammable

burns

repels the stickiness

of strokes 
and the slavery of

irrigation and plumbing

it has

r e s o n a n c e

a pulse!

weak strong hot cold

prayers 8

earth magnetism 8

the last forgotten day

water

walks

talks 

stalks

balks

is a fie that burns everything

even love

even stone

even

even

death

we don't know what it is

we don't know what it is

3

it knows what we don't

about 

structure

disintegration

hope

prayer

without restriction

a slippery

aerobic

polyglot

halelluia

has a signature

specific to each place it lives

a signature!

a name!

forgotten 

all those 

names

it gave itself

9

in the studio

9
trined
to
work

autumn new moon

storm
cold

inside
ginger
cinnamon
apple

found copper

made soup

potential

field of

for

her inner

lack of

resists

observation
a kind of stickiness

that reduces
infinity

hovering as we do
really

overwhelmingly
eternally
repelled

this
this
is
you
glued
here

the physics of it

without
breath
nothing
mastered

jane

I have a copy of a 1986 monograph for a Freilicher exhibition that originated at the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire. In one essay, John Ashbery wrote, “The artists of the world can be divided into two groups: those who organize and premeditate, and those who accept the tentative, the whatever happens along. And though neither method is inherently superior, and one must always proceed by cases, I probably prefer more works of art that fall in the latter category.” I would go further, and say that some achievements of art lie out of reach of premeditation. Nothing except an intuited search, undertaken for emotional reasons, resolved when the unforeseen has been discovered and recorded, will produce work of this sublimity.

Out of the Reach of Premeditation: New Works by Jane Freilicher

by Franklin Einspruch

her
this
is
is
is
painting