describing the similarities in their
method, perhaps we should end
by turning to a painter for a
different and wonderfully Zen-like
take on this. At the conclusion of
his excellent short essay of 2010,
Poetry and Painting, the American
poet Kazim Ali speculates “Why
write poems or make paintings in
a dangerous world?” He answers
his own, loaded, question with a
profoundly moving statement
from the Writings of the great
Minimalist painter Agnes Martin
(1912-2004): “Beauty and
happiness and life are all the same
and they are pervasive,
unattached and abstract and they
are our only concern. They are
immeasurable, completely lacking
in substance. They are perfect and
sublime. This is the subject matter
of art.”
See the Adrian Henri exhibition of
poetry & paintings at Corke Art
Gallery, Liverpool from 6-28th
April2013. For further details see:
I
I want to paint
2000 dead birds crucified on a background of night
Thoughts that lie too deep for tears
Thoughts that lie too deep for queers
Thoughts that move at 186,000 miles/second
The Entry of Christ into Liverpool in 1966
The installation of Roger McGough in the Chair of Poetry at Oxford
Francis Bacon making the President's Speech at the Royal Academy dinner
I want to paint
50 life-sized nudes of Marianne Faithfull
(all of them painted from life)
Welsh Maids by Welsh Waterfalls
Heather Holden as Our Lady of Haslingden
A painting as big as Piccadilly full of neon signs and buses
Christmas decorations and beautiful girls with dark blonde hair shading their faces
I want to paint
The assassination of the entire Royal Family
Enormous pictures of every paving stone in Canning Street
The Beatles composing a new national anthem
Brian Patten writing poems with a flamethrower on disused ferry boats
A new cathedral 50 miles high made entirely of pram wheels
An empty Woodbine packet covered in kisses
I want to paint
A picture made from the tears of dirty-faced children in Chatham Street
I want to paint
I LOVE YOU across the steps of St. George's Hall
I want to paint
Pictures
I WANT TO PAINT
(
part I)
by Adrian Henri
1932-2000
