Blue
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The Blue Basin
The blue basin
Oil based paint
A bit of orange
Under the mirror on the wall
With patches of bright sun
Lighting your face
What do you feel right now?
When you look into your eyes
See your pupils dilate and change size
Ask yourself the question
Do you love the person in the mirror?
Do you see the stars in your eyes?
Do you see God behind it all?
What do you feel now?
Tears dropping into the half-filled blue basin
Holding in your life
WHO WILL CARRY THE WORLD?
One
Brush oil paint on burlap tightly woven
Crisscross patterns with large wooden
Stretcher bars
Let it dry under sunlight, starlight,
Moonlight, go out there tonight
Listen closely to your heart beating,
A symphony with blood and air and life
Rushing in
Think of crickets and fireflies
Hopelessly trapped here on earth, joyous
Creatures
Light the candles on the table outside
Apply new paint with brushes and pallet knives,
Mix in the tear drops as you paint with shadows
Drawn in from candles and moonlight hearing
The lonely distant trains sounding out as they
Pass through
Now it is time to tell God what is on
Your mind knowing the paint dries slowly
And God is patient, especially with you
What will you say
And will it all be true?
Two
The stars blink once or twice every night
They are busy now, making light
The neighbors try to sleep
The dogs and cats up late
Wondering who will be left when
They leave
Who will count the waves at the sea?
Who will ponder riddles and walk the maze?
Who will carry the world on its back?
Make light of darkness and fill outer space?
Frivolity cannot perform the calculations
Nor supercomputers with highest speed internet
Connections
What is needed is undiminished joy offered
Up in spite of every problem encountered
Outstretched hands dipping water out of the river,
Expecting nothing
Listening to crickets, watching fireflies
Allowing the world to carry itself
Wherever it wants to go
Ledger Still
He sits on the bay, every day
For eleven years
Staring at the city across
Wondering what it is like there
Wanting to be there
Finally a man asks him if he’d like to
Go, only he cannot bring him back
And he goes, thinking surely, it will
Be better there than here with so much
Longing to be somewhere else
Once making the journey across he
looks around, decides life is better where
he was, fewer people, home to live, friends,
less wind and rain
now he sits on the bay, every day,
staring across at the other side
wanting to be there, wishing he could cross,
waiting ...
Patrick J. Leach
Patrick J. Leach lives in Portland, Oregon. An artist and a writer, Leach has written professionally for companies and universities. He is co-author with Frances Price Cook of a biography, The life and Art of C.S. Price. In 1995 he abandoned the corporate life, focusing on painting and poetry while earning money caring for neighborhood yards and homes. Leach has published over 16 books of poetry and art, available in print and eBook formats. Watch for more of his books combining his unique blend of poetry and art. Leach studied creative writing (poetry) at Cornell University (B.S. General Studies, 1972), and holds two Masters degrees from Washington State University (Sociology, Education). "I've always considered myself a writer. I've taken many paths, tried a variety of occupations, always returning to writing and art."
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Blue - Patrick J. Leach
Poetry and Paintings
By Patrick J. Leach
Copyright © 2013 Patrick J. Leach
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form whatsoever.
Images and text may be used in other publications only with written permission from the author, Patrick J. Leach.
Properly attributed brief quotations may be used listing the author’s name, title of poem and publication.
ISBN: 9781311031808
Publisher: Smashwords, Inc.
Published or soon to be published books include:
The Tangle of Meanings,
Meditations on the Mysteries of Life,
Bare Trees, A Book of Poetry
Meditations on the Mysteries of Life
The Tangle of Meanings
Paintings of Patrick J. Leach, Volume One
Patrick J. Leach, Paintings Volume Two
Patrick J. Leach, Paintings Volume Three
In This Vast Sea of Stars
Blue
The Weight of the World
The Symphony of Being
The River of Life
Whirlpools of Silence
Dreamer
Morning Stillness
Snowflakes Gently Falling
The Life and Art of C. S. Price (with Frances Price Cook)
Acknowledgements:
The mix of art and poetry gives me great joy. A lot of work and living goes into writing and producing a book like this, and many skilled individuals make it the best it can be. There are too many people who helped with this book to ever properly give recognition. The hands on workers include:
Linda Anglin for her editing, organizing, and conceptual assistance, separate out the chaff.
Angela Longovia for her help as the graphic artist, her work with computer layout and design, and for being the liaison with the publisher. She has been indispensable and a joy to work with.
The spiritual essence I rely on for all of life, telling me always, Do not give up. Keep on this path to share our creative soul with the world.
Celestial Navigation, 2008
Blue
Driving home from work, relieved for the
Weekend and a change of things to do
A mixture of tired and quiet desperation
Completely in myself
Until I looked up at the sky
The sun sinking down into the horizon
Lemon yellow, orange
Red, blended into blues
And I go down with the sun into
Cool tranquil
Blue
The Perennial Grass of Hope
So much wasted talent and opportunity
Counter intuitive
An outsider trying to find my way in
An inheritor of a world of trouble
And hurting insides constantly nagging me
Unable to nourish a starving soul
In the land of plenty
The universe looks away from me
Neither friend nor foe it seems
Praying for trust and harmony
Building up such high walls around me
Afraid of every little thing
With so much wasted opportunity
There is the perennial grass of hope
We hold forth
With knowledge no one gets exactly what he wants
Life gives and takes
Violets grow in least expected places
We try our best to love
The perennial grass of hope
A Summer Phenomenon
A warm summer day
No wind
Pure light on the trees
I walk on the paths
Around the ponds
Here
A mass of tiny insects
Silent
Holding up the air
I walk through them
They do not touch me
They separate
Coalesce again