Poetry to Art Dialogue

I had a video piece in a group show at the Seymour Gallery a few years ago. Below is a piece that a local poet, James Witwicki, wrote in response to 'Monument for the Land'. 

A woman is piling,

then unpiling, rocks

she has been

unpiling rocks

against the backdrop

of an ugly concrete wall

bristling with reinforcing

steel and barbed wire.

In a vacant field

in a quiet corner

surrounded by yellow wildflowers

vivid yellow on gangly stalks. 

This woman unpiles rocks.

This is not entropy;

you can play it backwards.

But time will march forward,

--- Please --- I must know ----

In a vacant lot,

in a quiet corner, 

in a bitter war-

torn country. Soothing words

in Arabic, soothing words

words in relief - mother to child,

ones who survive, piling rocks

carefully.

Old, gnarled trees preside

over cairns,

monuments left. 

This woman wears

a simple, modest,

earthtone shift. Sometimes

she stumbles slightly

while walking away

from the camera.

Doesn’t mean that she is not sure.

She has been unpiling rocks; and if,

and if unpiling rocks is sufficient,

she will continue ---