Ekphrasis - by Belinda Rule

ISLAND | ISSUE 159

Ekphrasis: William Robinson
Passage of Light from the Sea at Numinbah, 2002

You would like to think
in the thicket, that hatched taupe, you could
be gone, but the light
and the sky and the distant trees,
the sheeting of that light
on the underside of clouds,
all these things are always
already here, let me be clear are precisely
physically where you are, are just
a phenomenon of light off matter
which is all in angles and exists
only for the precise eye seeing
in the precise place, none of those things
if you went toward them might really
even be there, by which I mean
the pain that is felt, the needing
would not be there, would not be
anywhere. ▼

---

This poem appeared in Island 159 in 2020. Order a print issue here.

If you liked this piece, please share it. And please consider donating or subscribing so that we can keep supporting writers and artists.