When better to contemplate the nature of time than on the day we set our clocks ahead by one hour for daylight saving time? The loss of that hour will be felt by many as it affects our schedules.
Bruce has often explored the tension between the orderly progression of time and the disorderly way we experience it. The last stanza of “The Clock” hints at this tension. The theme appears in a number of his other poems, including the previously posted TIME. He has attached actual clocks to a few canvases (an attempt to tame time?), but in his painting “Clock,” below, the object is drawn purely from imagination. The shapes and lines are varied and energetic. Shadows pool under the clock and float on the wall behind it. The thick paint in the center of the clock face has been carved with a palette knife, and the same technique has been used to create the thin white lines on the table and the wall. Freeform pencil shading crazes the space around the clock. Bruce’s expressionistic depiction of the clock embraces time’s overall feeling of movement more than its linear precision.
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The Clock
The Clock . . .
Counts the wall
It counts
The bookcase
In the hall . . .
—
It
….Counts . . . .
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..The people
..How long
..Will they last?
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..It ……..Counts . . . . .
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..All
.
—
The
…….Spaces
………….As Well in between:
—
.Asks the
.Question . . . . . .
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.What do they mean?
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The clock is always counting, counting
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Have you checked
The total number of seconds today?
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The count is always clocking
The count is always clocking
The clock is always counting
The clock is always . . .
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Clock
Oil and pencil on canvas, 15″ x 15″
Artwork and poetry copyright 2009 Bruce MacGibeny. All rights reserved.
Tags: art, artist, daylight saving time, expressionism, painting, poem, poetry
