David Capps – Tree (after Rothko, but not)

At play with immersion, vastness, solitude, and understanding, David Capps’ poem “Tree (after Rothko, but not)” is a work inviting readers to explore emptiness. The poem draws heavily from the work of renowned abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko (1903-1970), who was best known for his expansive color field pieces. In David’s poem, readers are drawn into a vast Rothko color field, bearing witness to the structure a drama of a solitary tree in a pasture.

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Tree (after Rothko, but not)

There are no neighbors
for this sullen tree
in the middle of the pasture

which looks like solid blocks
of paint, squeezed
and dull, trees flattening out,

the tripartite flag hash tag
of a wood chipper
ignorant of field and color

which occasionally differs
by a bird. A plein air artist
might apply paint with a knife

at sunset, when the amethyst
chord strikes his exposed neck
and forearms, sleeves

rolled, are the roots we side-
step, tendons in articulated
tango, partners leading

fingers leading stroke to brush.
Caught in the act, the bush
embarrasses. Tree-line, leaf-line,

shrub-line, perspective—
what are they to the horizon—
what could virtue mean

in the quietude of blending
fields, compared to this
shadeful easing, if not ease

of perfection, given Earth’s
loving curvature? How to grasp
what dawns from painting

when from a single shore
everything dawns forever?
How to sound the hollow

word, when waking-dying
-being-born happen
simultaneously, if…

Fact: he never wanted them
displayed behind glass—
to reach beyond yourself

*

When Gabriel visited
Mary as a beam of light
she understood him

instantly.

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Read On: Related Posts

• William Stafford’s Looking Across the River
• Gurdjieff and The Two Rivers
• Behind Me – dips Eternity – Emily Dickinson
• Pamela Wax – Capricorn Loses His Star
• Barry Casey – Wait Here