Sea level

 
from one window the castle
from the other    trees
wind in the branches  
marbled light    against grey sky
green earth on gesso  raw umber  white
as if the sea has fallen on us
 
as if the sea has fallen on us
from one window the castle
on its high point
against marbled light   a grey sky
straight lines  to the buttress
where it follows the curve of the hill
 
in marbled light   leaf green
on gesso       waves restless 
flooding through the room
flecked foam  the pitch and heave
from one window or another
the sea is falling on us

Janet Sutherland’s work has appeared recently in the following: Stride, Shadowtrain, Litter, Great Works, Poetry Review, Shearsman, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Rialto, work forthcoming in Poetry Wales and Frogmore Papers.  A collection Burning the Heartwood came out from Shearsman (www.shearsman.com in 2006. She lives in Lewes in the UK.

 
Copyright © 2009 by Janet Sutherland, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. Copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the editors are notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.