Monday, June 11, 2007

painting

he was afraid that you would know
he had always been himself
like a secret
that he had seen darkness
as it brooded across his mind
yes he was afraid of being
the wrong kind of human
some something –
too much of another view
of what was wrong

although he could understand why
he was perplexed
this so rested on him

every rebuff hurt so
he had to build an island
of color to hide in
waiting to be discovered
as having gone
to somewhere only
his rules applied

10 comments:

Ruela said...

GREAT.
Nice work.

Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks Ruela! You have a wonderful visual arts site. I have enjoyed it very much and will return to see your amazing work often. Thanks for such enthusiastic words, my artistic new friend!

Russell CJ Duffy said...

bloody great this one. resonates so deep within me. i really can empathise with the character that you write of.

Pat Paulk said...

Too often we allow ourselves to be dart boards/targets for others poorly aimed views. Excellent!!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Hi CJ! This is a relatively universal circumstance among sensitive people (artist types). I was listening to an interview of a rather famous English artist when i realized these things poetically. Thanks for such a fabulous comment my old friend (and often alter ego). We are never far apart!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks Pat! Dart boards are natural targets. Sometimes the sharpness of contact confuses us about how poorly constructed are the things which strike us so strongly. This is especially true in childhood when our trust is so strong. Thanks for the wonderful comment.

Russell CJ Duffy said...

I think you right. Not that I think of myself in those terms nor do I wish to make excuses for my self.
I certainly feel that aspects of this life we lead are false and that we all, if we could and had enough talent, would chose to do something different with our lives.

Russell Ragsdale said...

Yes CJ, we tolerate much of our lives, although we certainly would not have chosen those elements we tolerate as more or less essential parts of our lives . We cannot choose young/old, short/tall, bright/dull, male/female, parents/children, talented/talentless, and similar factors but we can choose some precious few others. They are very hard to deal with however.

That about us which is false is an interesting area for contemplation. I have lately been working on a poem about the first part of what we are discussing but I haven't attempted to put it through a true/false analysis. I'll give that a shot!

Thanks for the interesting dialog on this vital subject, my old friend!

Anonymous said...

Wow!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Thanks Aurora! Oh how I love your Wows!