This IS NOT A Stone (#65)

TIME CONSOLED IN THE STONE

I
In the courtyard where sick horses
circle to recover,
a puny youth
his neck thinner than the neck of a sick horse,
stands in the middle of a stone bridge
in long black clothes.
The censer swinging at his neck
shows how far he must travel,
but his horse is sick,
unable to go
and the moon shall not enter his sleep.

History must move on
and find its place.
The word must find its subject.
His hair must grow long
and be damp and fragrant.

II
Time consoled in the stone
told him,
when it’s dark
you’ll be driven from here.
But we will remain.
The eagle’s beak
snow water
in the well.
Remember your ancestry,
they say history will end
frozen in a photograph.

Man creates his face on his own
and so there is wind.
A place weeping enters our sleep
and never leaves.

Poem by Bejan Matur

Number 65 in the continuous series "This IS NOT A Stone"

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To watch the previous post in this series follow this link to: 'This IS NOT A Stone #64'

Or start at the beginning: 'Everything In One Stone'

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Choosing this simple, mediocre sand stone in 1986 to be his focal point for meditation and thoughts, artist Jan van Krieken doesn't need much more; a symbol for the slipping of time, a bit of eternity amidst an ever faster moving and changing world.

While investigating and researching the artist automatically arrived at "The Philosopher's Stone", the mysterious substance that alchemists had sought for centuries. Van Krieken found out that they were essentially looking for the same thing as he was looking for by means of the stone in his pond; the pure and the everlasting.

Almost 32 years of observing and photographing that one sand stone. Sometimes covered with snow, sometimes occupied by a bird, or hidden by fallen leaves, protected by ice or serving as a warm bed for a salamander this cycle of change became a metaphore for life itself.