Rivarola & Gunn – February 2012

Julieta Rivarola and Gregory Gunn traded art and writing. Juli shared this photo with Gregory:

In response, Gregory wrote this poem:

Grave Consideration

Indiscreetly, breaking away
from the rest of the flock
that tend to follow the rest,
lead by a godless bleating
bellwether, my independent
feet eventually found
an ancient burial ground beside
a basilica on a hillside shore.

There, I felt its bold edifice
affirming skeletal remains,
still conciliatory as ennui
and constant, ineffectual
composition & decomposition
of cadence of bone; might
as well drop dead for no
serenity until the Master
of All has outgrown
his designed creatures.

Fervor fades from
the bleeding core; it bleeds
from the marrow; keeping
dream & gesture
     separated
up to the time man casts
off his wisdom & absurdity;
here where sepulchres slumber
in a summer depression
of spirit:
a senescent, yellowing August.

* * * * *

Gregory shared this poem with Juli:

Better Off Not Knowing

The backyard is in freeze
frame, a pause-projector
winter image: unobscured,
lapis lazuli, grainy raster
intaglio rilievo with
pale contours.

Slowly edging into your line
of sight, tumbling: the linear
domino effect of epochs,
time in reverse bowing to
a prehistoric world,
a hibernal cave.

Presently, beneath
your cover of unruly hair,
you are beast and man,
lust in the flesh.

The internal innocence
between your ribs
still cries and forms
       his first words,
is anonymous and timeless,
a free spirit of your soul.

His demise remains looming,
already budding, on the verge
of blooming, a spectacular,
multicoloured flower.

Safe and sound in a garden
of non-sentience.

In response, Juli made this photo: