White Spaces, Grey Shades
This is the line that challenges emptiness
Then lapses back into the scrounging
For something to say or do
To preserve us
Ironic, we the champions of
Bridging distances are
Mute
A desert wind sweeps
The plains of my battlefield mind
Trying to lift up some souvenier
Some reason to stay and not move
It is the feeling after the
Last day of school
In the last year
Locker cleaning
Incredible the rubbish we
Lock up
Then discard
Have we relearned old lessons
Contributed something vital
For the perpetuation of the species
The institution
The individual
Doodle on a paper so that
In the throwing away
It was not a waste of paper
Where was the value in
That excercise
We fill our empty spaces
As we fill an empty space
And hope
The impression we make
Is greater than the sum
Of our impressions
Interesting
That every artist
As every child
Is taught
With pencil in hand
To fill White Space
With shades of grey
Richness in texture
Variations of tone
And erasable
Interesting
That every artist
As every child
Is taught
Of absolute values
Of blacks and whites
Of contrasts in color
Good and bad
Right, wrong
And consequences
Ironic,
The struggle we face
Trying to preserve
A penciled Individuality
And for the Universe
To acknowledge our
Singularity
Amidst all these
Systems
Every impulse
Every feeling
Struggles with the paradox
Of embracing and challenging
Simultaneously
Four realities clash
In every word exchanged
Old doodles
Which I've never thrown away
Can't throw away
Teach and reteach
Tenderness...
Excitement
Perhaps the essence -
I throw out nothing
The closet of the mind
As that of the tangible
becomes more cluttered
Tracing different realites
Of hope, anticipation,
Palpitation, savouring,
Distance, coldness
Harshness, fading
As so many dried roses
Which I dare not discard
Since each one bespeaks a dream
Withered?
Perhaps I am not great enough
To consolidate impressions
To create one Impression
So, I suppose
Before Unity can come
With Us
We must see each other
As multi-dimensional ones
Instead of many one-dimensions
(1999)