Rothko Looking Back At Us

Contributor: Jonathan Beale

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Too vast and even too bold
A desert too huge to lose
And obviously lost completely.
The colours clear as water
A poignant life. And as necessary
One can view the point
One can feel the point in one’s side;
Some awaiting some action -
The blood flowing with water
This simple eye in the world
Stretched ever outward. Ever outward
The world is upside down
Never back to front. It looks one-way
And then tomorrow grows in its tiny way
Taken to be given. So life is.

The orange. The red. The vision
As a ‘50’s road movie - retold
…Some young actor; broken
Some writer- whose raw judgments - him,
Or controlled lusts above his head
A time in which a freedom
Roamed around…
For a while, the sanctuary of cigarettes
Beer and greasy food and life – a sort of life.
Passion that now seems unsafe.
We’re as lush as a tropical garden
A life with colorful birds.
The age that grew - lost - finds a simple solace
The emotion taken is shared and life is given
Taken at the time now. Rightly

The dream state number one
The caught artist within the vortex
A drowned state and lost soul
As the eyes swirl and look up
And look up until they drop
A strange aridity covers the flesh
Gauze unrevealing the idea
Leaving enough hidden.
The final trip - californication?
The restaurants’ in New York
Blatantly bare. Now Iconography
Undersigned scarcely unmade up
The deep eyes plundering a life
Through an eye for art maybe
Taken from the mesh.

Against the back of white
The merging emotion unrounded
Just existing as…
The face values in mitigation
Every icon that you are and were
And could become
Life was too huge
And in some ways just
Too - small - not enough
The artists hunger:
To relay his world:
As he sees fit, and as he sees….
His eyes energy - as I watch
Against my morning screen
Taken from life - returned to.


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Jonathan Beale is a poet, occasional book reviewer, and has to work for a living until the Fates give him a winning lottery line. He has been published in many journals in England and America such as Decanto, The Screech Owl, Danse Macabre, et al. He is currently working on a volume for Hammer and Anvil.