Ground Glass Menagerie™

“Rhyming oneself into the interpretive field”

a friend once said

was a way to enter these pictures

lowly, despised, and scor-ned trope

is not just for philistines, dabblers, and dopes

for if there is some whimsy that needs unveiling

the humble rhyme just might do the revealing

Another case of perceptual ambiguity

what seems up should be down

what seems down should be up

it’s all a matter of perspectivity

The rocks and brown say one is looking down

the blue and green counter one is looking up

and then there is that confounding parrot

or a turtle perching on a rock

This is not specifically Stil-like

unlike the Rothko I took in May

but the yellow in it reminds me of him

and the way his paintings take over a room

Please don’t accuse me of corrupting minds

I try to elevate them and do it rhymes

but if stretching imagination has become a crime

I’ll cop a plea and do my time

or maybe instead I’ll blame my nephew

this site’s guru and designer

by claiming he’s at fault

for contributing to the delinquency of an older minor

unaltered like all these photographs

This is the estimable Edgar Allen Poe

and not the thief Ali Baba

bringing some seeds of terror to sow

but he better remember the password

or that portal will remain shut tight

and he will end up like one of his creatures

breathless in infinite night

I thought you couldn’t stand alone

I always tried to pair you with others

this morning morning you said

I need no other

and I agreed

pure essence

no transformation

just what it is

I saw some yellow sparkles 

just below the “Van Gogh” Bridge

but I didn’t know I had an “Henri Rousseau”

until it made the screen

Another Rousseau dreamed of Eden

until Man was put in chains

it seems that things edenic

are part of the Rousseauian terrain

The Age of Innocence is about to end

Eve looks down on her crafty beguiler

Her eye is big, her dreams are larger

He’s so smug, he knows he’s won her

unaltered, like all these photographs

Some years ago while practicing “The Inverted Mirror World”, 

hanging upside down over stream banks mainly

I discovered my own little world of aqueous creatures

laughable, scary, and inspirational by turns

In this position bilateral symmetry reigns supreme

and sets the stage for eyes and mind

Something similar happens in the Cavity World

where symmetry is not involved

It may have to do with confining light

and its compression, very unscientifically speaking,

which performs a kind of transformative effect,

a visual nuclear fusion

Planes and lines that break and cut also do their part

Maybe also the digital camera

more sensitively attuned than its analog partner 

gets a little excited, confused, and claustrophobic

seeks relief and gets creative

How else explain that in this little picture

with its figure in the right hand top -

looking down is a clear Bird Man face and jaunty torso, 

looking left what could be called the visage of Harpo Marx

who looks in turn at the green-dressed drag-like creature

with a black mustache that must be that of older brother

(They’re small but believe me they are there)

Much may you travel in the realms of gold

and nothing like this would compare,

the closest might be transient forms of clouds

but they are fleeting and insubstantial 

and completely beyond the pale

When all is said and done

it’s just plain fun

so for now I desist explaining

Yes, I know, who cares