Wall Writings continues Home Dreams exploration of abandoned sites, though now we are inside homes, seeing traces of a discarded past. The transition correlates to changes in perspective. Where once I focused on the outer world, I began to look inward. I composed poems relating each room to an inner landscape: its structures, shadows, beauties, and various states of hope, despair, and renewal. The poems are scratched into the surface of the photo and under layers of acrylic and oil glazes.
Below you can explore each poem which is included next to its corresponding image.
Old Stove (Conception)
I’ve carried this room around
forcing its weighty sighs
worn-out ruts and reinforced struts
onto countless incarnations
banging my head
on washed out walls
that kept me just so far
from catching hold of you
At the slightest murmur
I’ve fluttered and started
turning on lights
opening windows, stoking fires
sure that you, or another, were here
convinced things were different
Yet the moment you were escorted out
the rooms of this house
were one voice shorter
and I was cut down, hobbled
to sit and wait in my sweetest face
next to the cast iron truth
that was my conception of you
So I’ll pack up these ways
and shed this callused skin
of cracked walls
and overheated expectations
hoping I can finally exchange
this configuration of truth
for something new

INKJET PIGMENT PRINT, OIL, ACRYLIC, SCRATCHED TEXT
33X23 INCHES
Corner Chair (Waiting)
Stiff fabrics, restless walls
my great grand mother’s way
of over saturated silence
hands over knees
breath held in place
For if you were to come
enchanted by this corner
I’d have you
lulled and disarmed
by a chorus of voices
generations of fancy
weaving reasons for you
to stay put by my side
These hopeful methods
once sticky with expectation
now dusted thick with restraint
and darkened with worry
finally only to be
a blindly held persuasion
exposed in this emerging light

INKJET PIGMENT PRINT, OIL, ACRYLIC, SCRATCHED TEXT
33X23 INCHES
Corner Table (Rooted)
Grandfather, in all his beauty
sat you down
in a corner of wishful thinking
and said good-bye…
I’ll be back soon
anchoring you to the spot.
Grandmother, with eyes askew
held you separate
responsible for her sanity
her broken dreams tabled
forcing you to consider
how you shouldn’t be
So we sit and wait
for closeness from others
trying to be another
perfect and whole
expecting an answer to walk in
and show us the way out
this is what you told me
and it was my truth
Worried of breaking you
I stayed in this corner
hesitating to shake you
I made room for your sighs
wanting you to smile
I kept angry eyes hidden
and when he returns to you
I will be free to leave
and when she embraces you
I will be finally whole

INKJET PIGMENT PRINT, OIL, ACRYLIC, SCRATCHED TEXT
33X23 INCHES
Stairs (Held)
In these rooms I looked for you
calling your name, hunting you down
when darkness filled the corners
I took it as truth
and turned my back on you
All these years you were here
your footsteps beneath my feet
worn wood railings
sliding under your palms
as I crept up these stairs
searching for you
In this house I called you separate
an other to resist, to forget
your crumbling walls
with exposed inclinations
and inappropriate leanings
all my reasons to long for you
All this time I passed you by
certain in security
boarding up missed chances
and dust choked failures
where I assumed you oughtn’t be.
All at once, turning and stopping
there is a momentary truce
when your beams of midday light
sit on these steps
held in place by my dark edges
finally I see then
there is no you, just we

INKJET PIGMENT PRINT, OIL, ACRYLIC, SCRATCHED TEXT
33X23 INCHES
Corner Heater (Distance)
I’ve found a way
to sit beside you
which doesn’t make me shake
with the cold
of the space between us
Once we shared this place
and it filled with warmth
your late afternoon rays
melting my rigid ideas
of how things should be
Sparing no expense
I kept that as truth
and forced it on this room
fading wall papers to brittle
drying floor boards to cracking
a parched thirst consuming
what was our close manner
So I will impose
a thickened silence
pushing misconceptions
and wishful thinking
out vents and air ducts
an exhalation of dust filled aches
now singed and stinking
of all the things
never meant to be

INKJET PIGMENT PRINT, OIL, ACRYLIC, SCRATCHED TEXT
33X23 INCHES