“Gallery” was captured on the Wild Atlantic Way in Eire. It is captured at the same location as “Fissure”, on the coast near Lisdoonvarna. The segmentation of the different layers of rock drew my attention and a more sober reflection of the image on the computer allowed me to see that the bottom of the rocks looked like Lions paws! Stephen has picked up on this in his poem “Gallery”.
Gallery
It’s like a lion’s paw they say,
because a scene jogs memory,
another sight in parallel,
congruent image for our speech.
So when we talk the eye preferred,
a better pupil than our tongue,
the cortex brimming, overflow
of frames in vivid colour stirred.
Plato wrote of shadow caves,
the walls alive, recurring days;
invested in our bank account,
deposits garnered from our past.
Where mysteries, our album used
to gallery the unexplained,
a catalogue of oeuvre laid,
like parables – again, a like.
I note the word, now franca street,
the lingua both of text and speak –
I’d like to think because they see
that wordsearch leads to picture books.
This life, interconnected lines,
relationship, within, without,
and lion’s paw reminder that
a small soft pad can granite sign.
© Stephen Kingsnorth 2020