Canvas Specs, an early sonnet Options

[JustDaniel]

[revised 1/1/04]
Canvas Specs

An artist can be drawn into his sketches
almost unaware he paints himself –
not someone else – till sudden on the twelfth
of that internal clock, somehow he catches
on  this final hour the bells and whistles
wake the neighborhood inside his body
to the fact there’s something to his gaudy
blotches scattered ‘round, and thorns and thistles
hidden in the background of his portraits,
intricate in detail, living, breathing
on the canvas.  See the border seething
sometimes unexplained with many more traits.

Hard to figure how they’re in the drawing.
Could it be there’s something inside gnawing?

© Daniel J Ricketts 24 April 2002

Original first quatrain:
An artist can be drawn into his sketches
almost unaware he’s painting self –
not someone else – till on the twelfth
spot on the clock, somehow he catches

[Athena]

Hi Daniel,    :wave:

I love this sonnet and I do believe it's new to me.  Happy to see you've found a forum for some of your more sophisticated writings.    

Blessings,
Dolly    :pharoah:

[JustDaniel]

Hi Daniel,    

I love this sonnet and I do believe it's new to me.  Happy to see you've found a forum for some of your more sophisticated writings.    

Blessings,
Dolly    

Thank you, Dolly.

This was my only offering in this forum in a couple of months because of my time constraint... and it only took 8 days to be noticed. Just how sophisticated could it be ???

sLightly shy o' sophisticated, Daniel  :cool:

[Cleo_Serapis]

Wow Daniel!

This is a wonderful sonnet!  :snowflake:

Thanks for sharing this fine piece!

Cleo  :sings:  :operagal:

[Siren]

Daniel


Sometimes we do not see the true lines and colors within us.. and sometimes situations reveal to us an unknown/unrealized aspect of who we truly are...

A painting well aligned...


Daniah :)

[Guest_Jox_*]

Hi Daniel,

What's eight days? Think how long it's taken the Great Masters - decades!

This was topping. I don't paint but I do try to write (of course). So for me this was a brilliant evocation of how characters emerge and grow and even how plots develop as I write.

My blank canvas is my PC monitor. I type and edit to some degree "on the hoof"; also editing later. As I do all this, if I'm lucky, the characters do, indeed, start to breathe - they gain a life of their own. This has restrictions - I can do less with them; they want to go in their own directions. However, the big advantage is the organic nature they then take-on. It's a good job: I could never imagine nor write all that they become they have to do a lot of it for themselves.

"Inside gnawing" sounds as if we only project pain through art. I actually feel that we project a myriad of emotions and thoughts. However, that is a slight difference in our thoughts: it does nothing to diminish my admiration for your excellent poem.

For me, you really touched an aspect of art with which I most certainly can identify. Most enjoyable, thank you.

James.

[JustDaniel]

Wow Daniel!

This is a wonderful sonnet!  

Thanks for sharing this fine piece!

Cleo    :operagal:

Thanks, LorII!

Something has been bothering me for some time about this piece... and I just modified the first quatrain.

Thanks for sharing your WOW!
wowed deLightfully [ and very slowly! ], Daniel  

[JustDaniel]

Daniel

Sometimes we do not see the true lines and colors within us.. and sometimes situations reveal to us an unknown/unrealized aspect of who we truly are...

[ Profoundly stated indeed, Daniah. Thank you so much for your very thoughtful visit. Forgive me for taking so long to get back here. ]

A painting well aligned...

[ hmmm... attempting to eye up your alignment... ]

Daniah :)

appreciating your Light, Daniel  

[JustDaniel]

Hi Daniel,

What's eight days? Think how long it's taken the Great Masters - decades!

[ You're right, of course... and in the past few days -- since I've gone back to work a month and a half early -- I'm appreciating just how long it takes for a thing to settle in and make adjustments.  My body is taking a LONG time to adjust to this new knee, and I'm VERY tired between visits here.  Things are going to drag out a bit for me for a while, I fear. ]

This was topping. I don't paint but I do try to write (of course). So for me this was a brilliant evocation of how characters emerge and grow and even how plots develop as I write.

[ Thank you so much for that assessment! This piece really jumped out at me, honestly, and surprised me.  I was attending a 6-hour training seminar for work with a social worker / researcher / author, during which I wrote 4 sonnets summarizing parts of her lecture.  This grew out of her discussion of her interest as an artist.  It quite surprised me, not only for the subject matter, but for the off-beat meter pattern because of the enjambement... which had affected my perception of the first quatrain's L's 3 & 4.  I've modified them today. ]

My blank canvas is my PC monitor. I type and edit to some degree "on the hoof"; also editing later. As I do all this, if I'm lucky, the characters do, indeed, start to breathe - they gain a life of their own. This has restrictions - I can do less with them; they want to go in their own directions. However, the big advantage is the organic nature they then take-on. It's a good job: I could never imagine nor write all that they become they have to do a lot of it for themselves.

[ I understand precisely what you are saying.  Thank you. ]

"Inside gnawing" sounds as if we only project pain through art. I actually feel that we project a myriad of emotions and thoughts. However, that is a slight difference in our thoughts: it does nothing to diminish my admiration for your excellent poem.

[ Yes, I agree with you.  Just in this particular vantage point -- and with many of the people I find myself dealing with professionally -- there really is something there inside gnawing. You're right that other emotions can be stirring there in quite different ways.

And thank you very much for the compliment!  There is something about this poem that is inexplicably satisfying to me... in an uncomfortable sort of way that I cannot put my finger on.]

For me, you really touched an aspect of art with which I most certainly can identify. Most enjoyable, thank you.

James.

Thank you so much, James.  I'm deeply touched by your words.  Please forgive my taking so uncomfortably long to respond to them.

sLightly tired now, Daniel