A poem for on form

26th June 2022

We love fanmail, especially when it comes in the form of a poem!

The inspired independent curator, Nico Kos Earle, visited us just before we opened, and has sent us these words:

 

Form on Form

(A poem for Anna)

With patience, you will notice

Everything changes, even the stones.

Branches bud, bloom, and leaf

Fruit ripens, drops, and seeds

The earth, over and over again,

Sedimenting, accumulating, compounding

The landscape, striated with bones,

To unthinkable darkness.

Meanwhile the stone waits,

Hidden beneath a time ringed tree,

To see the light again.

Immutable, solid, drawing for water,

Calling for heat.

Into this metamorphic space

Slips a sculptural mind, seeking

To unearth what wants to be shaped,

In form be recorded

And because each stone carries

The husked memory of place

It is vital, it resists, it makes demands.

An ancient coldness sucks

The warmth from her hands.

And so they quarry –  form on form –

Animal thrashing rough to smooth,

Chipping, grinding, muscles harden.

Shaping the stone, the stone

Shapes the hand.

The mind reconfigures to a

Cutting loudness. Dust clouds

The room –  so much is lost –

And there is always the

Possibility of breaking.

Time collapses, the rock yields

Something new is formed.

Now plinthed in Asthall’s borders,

Sited by the lake, resting

In the cool shade of an orchard

Forms continue to invite touch.

Beautifully silent, they hold

A simple truth: because everything

Changes, nothing disappears.

This stone will not betray you

It will stay true to form.

By Nico Kos Earle