Fore edge painting

  Det var väl inte så genomtänkt att följa upp förra veckans fulländade ekfras av Birgitta Lillpers med att på nytt välja dikter ur antologin "Wordstrokes". Det känns lite orättvist mot dagens diktval.

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  För blott några timmar sedan fick jag genom min goda vän Annas facebookstatus klart för mig vad fore edge painting är för någonting. Och det gjorde mig nyfiken på följande dikt.
  Kvällens första ekfras gäller en sådan scen, målad på sidorna av en bok. 

Fore edge painting, by Lynne Rees
(From Wordstrokes : the poetry of art. Edited by Deborah Gaye. Avalanche Books, 2015.)

You know it's there beneath the veil of gilt
and cannot help yourself. Each morning
you take it in your hand, feel the grain
of red morocco, the raised bands pressed
against your palm, let the front board fall
and fan the quire of pages to the left,
spreading the fore-edge with your thumb.

And each time is like the first time -
fields, a bridge crossing water, a road
curving uphill to the walls of a distant town
and the indecipherable colour of sky.

Fore edge painting on the book
The Seasons, by James Thomson

And still it surprises you, how each sliver
of paper plays its part, how even
a closed book can hold a secret

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  Ett annat äventyr kan segelbåten erbjuda. Alison Brackenbury har gjort sin tolkning av Caspar David Friedrich målning.

On the sailing boat (1819)
Caspar David Friedrich

On the sailing boat, by Alison Brackenbury
(From Wordstrokes : the poetry of art. Edited by Deborah Gaye. Avalanche Books, 2015.)

So on the prow the lovers lean,
She in red velvet, he in green,
Their hands clasped, hot and keen.

Their eyes stare into painted sun,
Who guides the sheltering sail? No one.
Their trip has just begun.

I would rush in, knot the line firm,
To hold them in the glittering storm,
Wrap narrow shoulders warm.

Oh, if you make it, you must land,
Find bills, lost jobs, misunderstand
A child hot in your hand,

And then another. Will you fail?
But look, the sea sleeps, still and pale.
First teach them how to sail.