Soundings

tides entombed in unchanging light,
reflecting the absent sky,
shimmering with intangibles–
an ancient web woven with stories–

the stilled sea contemplates its origins–
heavy with the cadences of gravity
boundaried by the afterlife–
tides entombed in unchanging light–

surrounded and asunder, astonishment
becomes tinged with enigmatic clarity–
holding particles of stars as if enshrined,
reflecting the absent sky–

the fulcrum rests inside the echo
of what endures, arising
from an aqueous womb
shimmering with intangibles–

the circle continues, horizonless,
quivering in confluence–
who can refuse the voices of the sea?–
an ancient web woven with stories–

I’ve been futzing around with this all week, inspired by the Kick-About prompt, Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez, and the earthweal challenge natural forces. The painting above, my first attempt, probably has 20 painted layers. Watercolor looks very different wet, and each time it dried I was dissatisfied with the result.

Eugen von Ransonnet-Villez was an Austrian artist who designed a diving bell, below, so he could paint the landscape that existed under the sea. This was in the 1860s–both crazy and fantastic. His paintings have an eerie green magic, which was what I was trying to capture.

Eugen Ransonnet-Villez

Because what is the sea but the most elemental of magic?

Like Ransonnet-Villez, I wished to immerse myself inside of it. Being at the moment concrete-bound, I could only try to conjure it with words and paint.

34 thoughts on “Soundings”

  4. I was immediately drawn in by your colours which have this profound soothing effect on my tired mind. Thank you for this Kerfe! ‘who can refuse the voices of the sea?’ Who indeed?

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  7. I love all of this–the verse and the art. “Who can refuse the voices of the sea?” Certainly I can’t.
    Gorgeous!
    When I went back and looked at the top image, it made me think of both photos of cells under microscopes and images of the Earth–and that seems fitting, the micro and the macro, and all connected to and by the sea.

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  10. The sea is such a vast changing choral canvas, it supplies in inexhaustible lode of paintings and poems! I loved the supple weave of these images and words. Who indeed can refuse its voices? They swash around our inner ear. – Brendan

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      1. Oh it’s my pleasure K. And thank you so much too. Some of the forms are a part of me now, I just go with the flow sometimes. Other times, I just don’t want to leave a particular form in the cold, lol.

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