Eyes that seek the Unseen
From “The Man with the Blue Guitar” by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), a fragment from part XIV.
“…A candle is enough to light the world,
It makes it clear. Even at noon
It glistens in essential dark.
At night, it lights the fruit and wine,
The book and bread, things as they are.”
For those interested, the complete Wallace Stevens poem inspired, in the seventies, the series of etchings “The Blue Guitar” by David Hockney – well worth to be seen.
Just by chance I was surprised by a book of drawings by the poet Sylvia Plath, edited by her daughter Frieda Hughes . High quality drawings most of them in pen and ink on paper, also some pencil sketches, made in England, France, Spain and the U.S. Sylvia Plath had art tuition in her teens and she used to draw during her life – many of her poems were said to inspired by visual artworks. One of her drawings
Harbour Cornucopia, Wisconsin (from Sylvia Plath drawings, edited by Frieda Hughes, Faber & Faber, 2022, London, U.K.)
This drawing brought to my mind one of her poems
A Winter Ship
At this wharf there are no grand landings to speak of.
Red and orange barges list and blister
Shackled to the dock, outmoded, gaudy,
And apparently indestructible.
The sea pulses under a skin of oil…
The complete poem can be found here https://allpoetry.com/A-Winter-Ship
Reviewing my old photos, I found one that matches a well-known poem by William Carlos Williams
Pastoral
by William Carlos Williams
When I was younger
it was plain to me
I must make something of myself.
Older now
I walk back streets
admiring the houses
of the very poor:
roof out of line with sides
the yards cluttered
with old chicken wire, ashes,
furniture gone wrong;
the fences and outhouses
built of barrel staves
and parts of boxes, all,
if I am fortunate,
smeared a bluish green
that properly weathered
pleases me best of all colors.
No one
will believe this
of vast import to the nation.
from The Collected Poems of W.C. Williams, New Directions
João Avelar images 