Homework w/e 28.11.11 - SKETCHES ON THE WALL

[Maureen K Clifford]

SKETCHES ON THE WALL

The grey and grainy texture showed faces from different times
though some things there were familiar to me.
I recognized the outline of the range of distant hills,
the gnarled twisted limbs of the old apple tree.
The photos showed a little boy in fancy pants and collar
with a sailors hat perched on his snow blond hair.
A boy and dog together posing in their Sunday best
both spruced up a treat - a much loved family pair.

The boy was my great uncle and the dog his faithful friend
who he often drew, quite often causing strife.
For his father thought that drawing was a sissy thing to do,
there’s no time for fripperies in farming life.
But the boy would never settle down to farming things and such
it was the World he planned to farm when he grew up.
He scribbled horses onto walls and drew on scraps of paper
and many, many times he sketched the pup.

And now sitting here quietly with a fresh coffee in hand
and the scent of new mown grass around me drifting.
I turn the pages of a book and marvel at the drawings
at their beauty and their style, truly uplifting.
Lorikeets with plumage red and green in bottlebrush trees feasting
leap from the pages with such clarity
with every feather quite detailed, and every blossom drifting
downwards sketched with details very clear to see .

But then I come across the sketch I really love the best
I have known it all my life - it’s an old friend.
A prancing horse, an outline, one he scribbled on a wall
the original though faded, on the shed where sheep are penned.
And though we’ve never met in life – in spirit we are joined
and I feel his presence very close today .
I marvel at a talent that war cut short in its prime;
all that’s left now are old photographs and sketches aged and grey.


Maureen Clifford © 11/11

[Neville Briggs]

That's brilliant, excellent.. Maureen. Lots of applause and a standing ovation. I love it.

What is really good is that you have made the subtle interweaving of the metre and what Robert Frost called the " sound of sense " , if you know what I mean, not just the marching beat of the metre but metre overlaid with the conversational speech, as one person has said
" like moonlight on the water "

I think that the plain presentation of the details of memories has a much more powerful impact than just sentimental musing. I found it very moving, call me a bluff old codger, but I'm not always easily moved.

Did you know you had done that I'll assume you did

I consider this your masterpiece for 2011.

[Maureen K Clifford]

You'd lose the bet Neville I had no idea I had done all of that - I am impressed. Really happy that you like it.

I thought the masterpiece was the picture where I managed to layer a street art photo of a horse onto our old shearing shed and make it look like it had always been there but of course you hadn't seen that because I posted it afterwards .

Thank you Neville for your lovely words of encouragement

Cheers

Maureen