Ezra asked for a poem about Andy Goldsworthy. You can see some of his artwork here. (Andy’s, not Ezra’s.)
Some people paint pictures of nature to show
Us its beauty. Make landscapes with mountains and trees
Out of oil paint, acrylic or gouache, but no
Andy Goldsworthy doesn’t use any of these
He doesn’t paint pictures, or sculpt out of clay
The colours and shapes that he needs are all here
In the forest, the river. And he has a way
To make what we are looking at even more clear.
The colours of leaves show the life of the wood
So he places them gently. The roots start to glow
He balances rocks so it looks like they should
Tumble down, but they don’t. He is trying to show
Us that art isn’t copying. Art is the way
That we look at what’s there, and the story it tells
He listens, and hears what the world has to say
And translates it in patterns of pebbles and shells.
A long-ago artist once said that each stone
Holds a sculpture within, and you just have to free it
But people like Goldsworthy, they’ve always known
That it’s already art, if you know how to
see it.
Tom Juniper Poetry 