Considering Giacometti
(Sculpture #3 - Head Study/Clay)
“If I were ever able to render a head as it really is,
that would mean I could grasp hold of reality --
I would be omniscient. Then life would cease.”
-- Alberto Giacometti
In this gray early light
the one we meet
in the studio
is our
self, A.G.
a thin hard line
slicing through
the fog that surrounds us
like Eiseley’s startled crow
but, approaching touch
it dissolves
into scratches and thumbprints
a miniature abstraction
that crumbles to dust
like fragile bird bones
kept in a small box
closed tight
buried deep
in our own back yard
until, perhaps
in a sudden odd moment
tomorrow
or the next year
or decades hence
with the wing-like movements
of an old child’s hands
form breaking free
through the late gray light
(reprinted with thanks from Milkweed Chronicle)
