Dancing in Character

A Confounded letter about her lost ghostly love.

 

Light enough for drawing now. A Winter birth and a Summer breath. Coming soon together in such a young life. Relationships that fed first in water, upending and duck head down dabbling.

The meeting and marriage of strangers and the finding of anything corporeal beyond sleeping together. The wishes of the heart that were paid for in certain collected rents. Deferred ambitions that were never laid to rest

Very young meetings in sunshine meadows followed years later by the leavings of feeling in stubble fields of rain. He was an artist friend in those days but not then the season's only lover.

Only when she finally came of age did the light youth feel as one within a group of Summer wishing. All was highest ever cloud and blue. Lights of palest gold sparkled crisp on her young blonde beauty. It was when all her refused learning was examined anyway. On the boards that her artist used for his drawings. When the ways of young men were always green and the tempestuous was rigourously sweet and forever final. When he first saw her. When he drew her.

It is too dark now

A warring lover is only hated after all these years. After the great sheen of blue mistakes and all the ruby red disappointments. After the skin lines had knotted deep and the lengths of roped hair had finally lost their added colour. Lustre that was only alive in shallow added cream skin. Autumn was aged in dark forgotten vats and nut cracked cast off's with nothing to help and nobody to listen.

It was then he came back, walking slowly and without the usual sunken pebbled ripples. When she found he was still drawing, she finally feared his lingering death. He said he wished to become her artist once more. Her clever drawn partnered peace. She loved his ghost pencil rough across her aged elastic thoughts.  His illed starred charcoal presence in the final fulfilment of her lack.

Yet the dead have no urgency. No pure pink juices flowing. There are no sweet hormones for those who are gone. No quick white streams of ambition. All anger and loves are lost simply in the act of going. Ghosts fail relationships forever. Hauntings can only hurt themselves. The dead cannot draw.

Author's Note

Changes in Tense are deliberate. The photograph is mine and is called Dancing in Character. It is Glen Coe in Scotland for those who are interested.

Reviews

[EMF]

Ken..... there are so many things to hate about you. You are a fantastic writer, a marvelous photographer and a really nice bloke. Which is why I can't bring myself to do it... but I'll work on it. This is exceptional work. But that's what I've come to expect when I look at anything of yours.

[Ken Simm.]

I can paint as well. (Show off, I know) But I can't make a decent sausage butty.

[Ken Simm.]

Oh and thanks so much for the wonderful words about the write.

[EMF]

Would you prefer predictable or honest. Either way it is a faultless example of painting a ticture with words.

[Ken Simm.]

From you I wonder, (in the nicest possible way) which is funnier? Then that's the one I want. Thats because I do take myself too seriously at times.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i can't paint...but i can make a good "egg in a basket"!

[Dayran]

A wall that keeps apart winter and summer is as much the reason why we have seasons. In the same way, a woman who plays the wall may as much be promoting a union. It doesn't take a feminine view to understand that.... just a reasonable nature.

Your handling of the subtle in the impulses paints a masterful picture of your message. If you're not careful, you may find that it can go through walls.

[Ken Simm.]

Wrote this again because my spelling was awful. Tried to type in the dark.
Whay wonderful things to say, thank you. Although I sometimes wonder if my nature has been all that reasonable.

[Ken Simm.]

What not whay, next letter.

[Ed Hart]

the picture is a challenge for the heart, bold and demanding and unequivocal..."All was highest ever cloud and blue", could easily roll cleanly from Hopkins pen...and then, "The dead have no urgency", and i would add 'left'...you are a mix of the best come out better, in my small appreciation

[Ken Simm.]

I cannot answer this. I can only say thankyou.

[Emily B]

it is true, all of it

[Donald Meikle]

Nice write Ken. I spent more time gazing at Glen Coe. Almost heard the pipes.

[Ken Simm.]

I did when I took the shot. You ever been?

[Donald Meikle]

no not to Glen Coe. Inveryu was awesome tho

[Ken Simm.]

Inveryu? Is that like Seeyu?

[Donald Meikle]

West coast highlands (with palm trees) I don't Sfell werth a puck

[Ken Simm.]

Och Aye, ah ken now, Ken.

[Chris]

The photo "feels" right and by right I mean the "right" within the parens and not between the ears. Both of which have their own right(s) to be considered.

As for the "Letter" - I appreciate its "needs" and the level of the frustrations encompassing the distractions.

[Ken Simm.]

I must admit to a little confusion here Chris. Do you mean the photo should be considered by the heart and not the head?. I do appreciate you stopping by to listen however.

[Chris]

The view entails more than an image... and more than THE image. I appreciate the "feelings" I have within my mind as I gaze at the earth risings and the way the bird makes its way to wherever its today may take it.

[Ken Simm.]

And where the picture is taking you within your mind. Along with your experiences and experience. Ah clear now. What a great thing to say.

[Chris]

Being real is who we are. Did you read Ed Hart's "The Cabin"? I did - this morning. I left a thought there. One that I have had elsewhere but don't often go into. Is good and strong coffee today.

[Ken Simm.]

Did read Ed's. I am an avid fan. I found the cabin to be warm thoughts and said so. Could have painted it in my day job.

[Chris]

Come to think of it - I seem to remember you mentioned "Wyeth" - didn't you? I'm getting a feeling to write of a thought - what its all "about" maybe. Figure that ten years from now who the hell will say what the hell about what we said and how they will define our whys for us. Ed's Cabin will take on mystical significance and life-altering cynicisms as a start. And this piece - I shudder what they will make of it! or maybe I should shudder now because of what I "didn'T" make of it! I merely liked it as it is, and HOW it is... and what was said and what wasn't. And the tone and the "Tude"

[Ken Simm.]

AS I said to Sereh above and said many times to various people; I don't ever mind what pathways people find into my art; be they paintings, photo's, stories or poems. They are all the same anyway. They all come out of me processing the information of my experience and experiences and saying what I wish to say in the way I wish to say it. A viewer can like my painting or not because of the pallet, or the subject matter or because they don't know. The only thing I ask is that they take it at perhaps more than face value.
The pople who look at our works don't know us usually but they might start seeing the speck of dust we are talking about sometime.

[Ken Simm.]

And I agree what is left out is just as important. The negative shapes are as important to a drawing as the positive. But conversely it is possible to draw something without drawing it.

[Chris]

Neat how that works...I always appreciated it.

[Isibi]

Beautiful, rich, colorful piece of poetry. But " Never to be be coming together in a young life" Is the 2 be's on purpose? A comma might help to avoid confusion if that is the case

[Ken Simm.]

Thank you for letting me know. Changed now.

[.]

~ an absolutely stunning piece of poetry, monsieur ken... those "blue mistakes" and "ruby red" disappointments are at the heart of it all... "hauntings can only hurt themselves" and those we love too... i so hope that society as a whole learns how to transcend shadows... the photograph is absolutely stunning too...

[Ken Simm.]

It struck me one day that Ghosts can never hurt you.

[.]

~ true that, monsieur ken... i hear you... i was reminded of someone who is paranoid, illogically frightened of ghosts, and so the person's loved ones are affected by the person's paranoia...

[.]

~ i think i might be ready to bury the past provided it was a dead ghost rather than a living, paranoid one... is probably what i meant to say... i hope that's okay... i related very intensely with your words because of my situation...

[Ken Simm.]

Of course that is ok. Need you ask? I think I've said before that everyone finds their way into art through their own experience. Even my humble efforts.
I understand the pathways you've taken in completely.

[Ken Simm.]

And I agree with you.

[.]

~ oh, oh no... am sorry... no, i needn't ask ever... i was just not sure if i was able to communicate... now i am... thank you for writing this piece, monsieur ken... i feel like it was written for people like me... it's very close to my heart... you understand and present the woman's perspective brilliantly...

[Ken Simm.]

Me understanding a woman's perspective? Now that is worrying:)

[.]

~hahahaha...! ~ this is the problem with men... they think it's a worrying if they understand the woman's perspective... :P ~ although i don't know if women try to understand the man's perspective or not... i try to... but i find that i don't have too many women "friends"... :P

[.]

* it's a worrying thing

[Ken Simm.]

Depends on who you ask, surely.

[.]

~ oh, i've asked a lot... your sensitivity is truly rare... truly... and i mean that very seriously... in all that i've read by you, i find an acknowledgment of the woman's perspective... and, it's very respectful... as for women, especially on this site, i know very few who respect the man's perspective... most of them are in my friend list...

[.]

* i've asked a lot of people

[Ken Simm.]

I've got to say I am not very respectful of some of the women I've known. But then they usually were not very respectful of me. Sometimes that was the souce of the writing.

[.]

~ i hear you... the people i meant are people who have a general, all-encompassing disdain... it's so profound that it starts sounding like a kind of gender-bias... which... to my mind... is very different from episodes wherein a specific individual manages to be utterly disrespectful... and we... by virtue of being human... end up reciprocating in some way...

[Ken Simm.]

Could not agree more Sereh. And in turn felling a little disrepectful now I'm afraid I've got to go and see to my horse. He needs feeding mucking out and putting to bed. Sorry about tht but will return to this soon. Its interesting.

[.]

~ oh, please do, monsieur ken... i think we've reached the end of our conversation... thank you for your time and mind... :)