Watercolor, The Lightness of New Beginnings, & The Turning

by Corbin Buff

Watercolor

The image is brewed in cold water:

a few tepid brush strokes

the central form divined from its background,

details intuited from their absence…

until a different vision is born in the mind,

a few paths to it, dimly outlined.

Each dash of color moves you closer,

mistakes changing only the direction of your striving,

and at last, reaching the vision, the next one

stands even stronger in your mind, sinks its roots

even deeper, gives off even more light.

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The Lightness of New Beginnings

What if the body

Once set in motion

Never touched down

But flew over brazen corn fields

And frosted lakes

Forever

Like a soul recast

In new material

Or a bird

Taking wing with

The lightness

Of new beginnings

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The Turning

I knew you with a knowing

That preceded all knowledge

Until in your going

I felt my wilted heart catch

Your form ignited a flame it could not hold

An iron heart turned to gold

Only to rot like wood at the forest’s edge

When you ran and tried to hedge

Like a thin shell in a mighty wave

Beyond anything that we could save

Too young to choose my words

The ones I found were used to burn

A wound forever in both our memories

The day you turned and ran from me

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