peace
the winter wind plays piano
to the beat of crackling ice
the trees softly sing a hush
as skiers draw lines in snow
skaters waltz across the lake
and above a lone gull watches
even this matters
the dog walks beside a wood fence
black silhouette against the snow
still falls the snow soft as a cloud
study in white
trumpeter swans fly low by the river
deer wait at the edge of the woods
kids play joyful games in the snow
ermine feast on fresh roadkill rabbit
the artist
like a matador, dances in cautious daring
her feet snapping Tarantella across the floor
raising ancient memories from the forum’s dust
as she eases toward the beast raging nearby
exhaling hot steam or smoke or mists of time and
breathing mystic fire from some dark eternity
still lingering deep in the artist’s memory
flashing red around the artist the cape snaps and
beckons, taunts the dormant beastly image to charge
its horn pierce her, release some wild force deep within
release the beast to rage across the stadium
and she senses the shadow fall across her form
dancing with her as she dances toward the light
toward the bright eyes of the beast burning with her
she charges, pauses, tilts her head, charges again
toward destiny, toward the beast wakening
fires in her as she puts her little foot out
pauses then steps to this side and that then charges
brush held like a sword tipped with paint blood she arches
growls and swings her weapon down at something living
just beyond her understanding softly touches
fire in her eyes she squints, rages, roars sword upheld
slashes hard and vicious at the beast but some force
slows the sword’s stroke to a gentle loving caress
and the waking beast purrs at her soft disclosure
the artist feels the life beneath her brush and smiles
as deep within the pigment something comes alive
and the forum floods with light from somewhere else
with her smile.
Rouge
With one great Godly finger
Michelangelo made David:
some painter’s Pantheons make,
but having lost the Potter’s art
leave the mud to other gods -
make, not David, but each other.
Bob MacKenzie grew up near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in rural Alberta with artist parents. His father was a professional photographer and musician and his mother a photo technician, colourist, and painter. By the age of five, he had his own camera and ever since has been shooting photographs and writing poems and stories. Raised in this environment, young Bobby developed a natural affinity for photography and for the intricacies of language. He now lives and writes in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
Bob’s writing has appeared in nearly 500 journals across North America and as far away as Australia, Greece, India, and Italy. He has published twenty volumes of poetry and prose-fiction and his work has appeared in numerous anthologies. For eighteen years Bob’s poetry was spoken and sung live with original music by the ensemble Poem de Terre, and the group released six albums. Bob has received numerous local and international awards for his writing as well as an Ontario Arts Council grant for literature, a Canada Council Grant for performance, and a Fellowship to attend the Summer Literary Seminars in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Bob MacKenzie's novel "The Miriam Conspiracy" (Cyberwit.net, 2023) is now available.
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