Month: Apr 2022

Just like love

irlandesuk art, poetry

Venetian red

             Venetian red, John Lyons (40 x 40, oil on canvas)

Out of the red earth
        a light warm pigment
from pure ferric oxide
        the iron in the blood
of Renaissance art
        used with lime white
to create skin tones
        faces and hands
and naked bodies

Here in the background
        to an embryonic study
of a human head
        a first pass over
the main features
        to relay the exacting
geometry of eyes
        forehead chin nose
and mouth : a synthesis
        like all art — statement
and understatement
        observation and adjustment
much like life
        much like love

John Lyons

Love and understanding

irlandesuk poetry

At night open skies
not a single cloud
pinpricks of light
from the wise stars

tissue of my flesh
woven from their energy
all my hopes all my desires
driven by their impulse

Nothing hidden under a bushel
the illuminations of art
and the written word
predicated on sight and insight

Reason and rhyme :
we’re here to make sense
as a child learns to count
to place a finger on the pulse

Love and understanding
all that brings satisfaction
and contentment
to the restless heart

John Lyons

Mon plaisir

irlandesuk poetry

IMG_0510

When I next saw you
you’d cut your hair :
the style suited you
made you look younger

A fresh start I thought
an attempt to break
with the past and move
on with your life : but

when we rode the subway
your lips were tense
your posture stiff and
your heart elsewhere

John Lyons

Keeping track of the past

irlandesuk poetry , ,

Peggy

I retain all the restaurant bills
        and museum and cinema tickets
as markers in the books I read
        I know that on 10 February 2017
we paid a visit to the Guggenheim
        on that magical trip to Venice
: there there were the de Koonings
        that we both admired

The heiress Peggy Guggenheim
        who collected writers and artists
and artworks of all kinds : and we
        who created our own intimate collection
of words to describe who we were
        such as walkers and talkers
and so much more So I always know
        for certain precisely where we once
were but today I really don’t know
        where exactly you are now

John Lyons

The magnolias are in bloom

irlandesuk poetry

Hilliers Spring Blossom (8th April 2014)

Wake to the soothing song
of birds who exist
outside of history
and beyond our fragile
moral codes

Their song that says
let’s build a nest
let’s raise a family
let’s propagate
the species

let’s reproduce
the timeless harmonies
of generations past
knowing only peace
and the absence
of enmity

Is love really that complex
and if so should it be so ?
Surely dog eat dog is nothing
to be proud of nor blind
ambition nor envy nor hatred

The magnolias are in bloom
: admire their beauty
and ask for nothing more
than the warmth of affection
a hand to take your hand

John Lyons

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Nothing ever ends

irlandesuk poetry

Unknown portrait
                   Unknown, John Lyons (40 x 40 cm, oil on canvas)

Nothing ever ends
        nothing is ever finished
a portrait
        a poem
nothing is ever complete
        And so a day a week a year
a lifetime : how could love
        ever be exhausted

A cluster of actions
        condensed around
a burning star
        ash of our hours
in which the kiss
        is mightier
than the sword

In Margravine we sat
        and consumed our love
as squirrels played
        among the headstones
and we were driven
        by the wisdom
of our feelings

Bluebells grew
        in the shadow
of the cemetery wall
        and here and there
crocuses
and daffodils

There is no reason
        for love : it simply is
of necessity and brooks
        no denial    So too poetry
the passion according
        to my heart

John Lyons

The body thrives

irlandesuk poetry


That we are things
        things that think
we are stone
        made flesh

the atomic numbers
        within us that hold
our thoughts
        and our feelings

We search for meaning
        on all sides
and within ourselves
        direction and purpose

and we set great store
        by love in all forms
by beauty in all forms
        by truth in every instance

Though it may take an eternity
        the universe is countable
its infinity finite and bound
        by contraction—by attraction

love is the quantum
        song is its expression
light its revelation : the body
        thrives in its consummation

John Lyons

 

How Beautiful You Are

irlandesuk art, poetry , , ,

Art or a shared thought
        a certain fixed combination
of words or shapes
        or numbers in a mathematical
formula : a theorem or
        a theory

How when they are captured
        they transcend time and space —
the eternal curves of the lines
        presented on canvas
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
        that transport us to 1907
and beyond

They mixed pigments
        by the fireside
before daubing the walls : later
        panels or cloth stretched
on a frame that allowed
        the walls to be transported

Is it the heart
        or the mind that delights
in infinite things ?
        Let’s call them
death cheaters

Art
        Imagination
Creation
        The music of the spheres
harmony abounds
        and our senses
soak it all up

How beautiful the nightingale
        How beautiful the Grecian Urn
Autumn fields heavy with dew
        The cold North
and the warm South
        The drowsy Mediterranean

How beautiful the body
        How beautiful life
How beautiful love
        How beautiful the air
we breathe    How beautiful
        you are

John Lyons

Highly recommended, The Cloud of Witness a retrospective of paintings by Keith Cunningham at the Newport Street Gallery till 21 August 2022. Free admission.

Alive loves

irlandesuk poetry ,

The art and understanding
        of small children
innocent seeds sown
        into the dust

All that grows
        flourishes
flowers
        that brings beauty
in time

See how the leaves
        have burst forth
how spring has renewed
        the face of our earth

The remedy
        against the clock
is to steep oneself
        in art
according to
        Zukofsky

to make of life
        a long paradise
to cultivate one’s
        own garden of eden

Alive loves

John Lyons

Gratitude

irlandesuk poetry

And then there is
        silence
the blank page
        the primed canvas
but every image retained
        internally

All the memories
        held in the breath
mindfulness
        gratitude
for all the love
        granted : acceptance
for all the lost love
        The story we once
wove hand in hand
        before we went
our separate ways
        down the age

John Lyons