Dazzling

Poles Apart

Jackson Pollock
Blue Poles
Number Eleven
Sixty years old

aluminium and enamel
paint with glass

tangled jazz on canvas
as wide as cinemascope;

a terrain where blue rabbits burrow
jagged blue poles apt to topple;

snow, fire and charred verticals,
beautiful splattering dance;

crooked bar lines, melodious strands
cavorting in yellow across them;

aware of the act of creation,
of the actions of creation;

within its perpetual motion,
the canvas a freezing blur;

arabesques of dripping paint,
a piece for strings;

heavy impasto with sand,
swathes of black tug hard

as if caught in a tide
of delicate dribbles

that read left to right
in a spattering dance.