Albers and Morandi: Never Finished
1. seeing
– j. a.
To achieve understanding, it is necessary not to see many things,
but to look hard at what you see.
– g. m.
色即是空空色是色 color is void; void is color
color/shape/form
with light=shadow passing
stillness asks no questions.
物自体 the existence of things
which do not breath
but are alive with(in) TIME.
I stand
face to face
with my ability
to see.
2. no words
no need to say a word
to talk
about them.
here in this space
visible or invisible
audible or inaudible
with the gravity of the horizontal music
of silence,
poetry & philosophy
need no reasoning
to speak
truth.
just to be silent
to learn
“being silent”
does not mean
“silence.”
3. fiori/flowers
& sensuous
an opaque transparency of flowers
is not a contradiction
to their existence.
it is a muted claim of victory
over their eternal beauty they live.
4. music
soundless tones
soundless vibrations
of
being alive
echo
with no instruments or voices
supporting us.
the audible flowering
of singularity
of its own metaphysics
is
what we hear.
5. invitation
morning, day & night
one spring to another spring
the door is always open
for the ones
who look & listen
to see & to hear.
Male Nude (Michelangelo 1504)
An unintentional
slight twist
of the torso
creates
boulders & forests
in his body.
The metamorphosis
of the world
underneath his skin
has
its own
logic & reason
beyond
words.
A desire
to articulate
anything so firm & clean
always
accompanies
an erotic subtext
of
wisdom
at large.
Enigma (Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci, 1503 – 1506)
rooted
in a riddle
of allusive obscure
puzzling mysteries
of
the air
in & around her
she does not invite
anyone’s desire
to know her
her biography or status
have nothing to do
with her
she sits & looks
(smiling or not)
just being there
at dawn
&/or at dusk
with an imaginary distant landscape
of mountains, winding paths, a bridge
with a familiar & unfamiliar breath
of Nature
behind her
she has
no words
no messages
no agenda
but a hint of
a good will
a sweet wish
a quiet hope
& an indescribable memory
of the past merging
into the future
to shine onto the present
she is
just here
what is an antonym of “happiness”?
what is an axiom of a “jovial revolution”?
how can you explain
& give oneself a solution
for the paradox of “Life=Time”
that does not have a synonym?
in a quandary
of an authentic secrecy
of intolerably lonely soliloquy
with a soft & meditative womanhood
reserved
for a fixed gaze
that might fall on her
the sitter
re-directs
our constrained vision
to the moment
of impermanence
–Yuko Otomo
Poetry
Rich dreamy and dazzling work, Yuko!