Four Poems

On the River I

(c. 1965, oil on canvas)

after Georgia O’Keeffe

A raspberry ripple view from G. O’Keeffe,
Tigerish against the heights in canyon land,
Saffron and peach as any coral reef,
On fleek (as they say) and channelling the grand
Opener aura of a practised hand
Into this boxy gallery today,
As summer weather blesses Santa Fe.

Short zigzag skyward and the climate changes,
Bronze earth switched out for ponderosa dream.
In serried ranks, the misty pastel ranges
Recede, chartreuse to seafoam, and we seem
Discharged, disjecta of a particle beam
Wyverning into quatrefoil panache,
...