September 2021

Whole Rabbit

© Matthew Word Bain

liberated from the subterranean realms
and looking quite at home in the summer sky
if only for a moment, as visions like this never last
I find myself marveling at this creature
I’m more accustomed to finding
upon taking my bearings
after falling down a deep hole
and whose tracks tend to lead me
to tea parties with mercurial haberdashers
and two dimensional representations of royalty
with their frightening whims and unimaginable views
and yet, here I am craning my neck at the heavens
and watching this out of place shapeshifter
soon to be transmogrified by time
and the drift of the wind
this momentary representation
of a form I know from a grounded setting
and so it seems that cloud gazing
and going down rabbit holes
have more in common than I knew
as the old maxim states:
as above, so below

Unexpected Landscape

© Matthew Word Bain

the smoke of distant fires
viewed through a primitive lens
has this otherwise white star
looking like a red giant before its time
tickling the tips of bare branches
strange branches to find in high summer
in a landscape that is in actuality
green – if not lush – this time of year

What Makes This Art?

© Matthew Word Bain

a panoply of angles
and a complex set of curves
where the orthogony of the builder
encounters the topography of the earth

this built landscape mature enough
to have become a three dimensional palimpsest
the intentions of the original authors
relevant no more to the needs
of contemporary tenants

a bricked in window
above a sealed over hatch
the aesthetic impact of change
“maintained in good condition, but
with no purpose,” now a nod to
Akasegawa’s hyperart:
a Thomasson

mundane beauty emerging
organically through the confluence
of time and place in the Anthropocene
pure art for those with eyes to see

Summer Leaves

© Matthew Word Bain

a green almost glowing
made soft by a simple lens
a volunteer, this cherry
emerging from an ancient lilac
and an opportunistic maple
contemporary iterations
of seed meeting soil

patches of brown
not present in spring
the mark of this summer’s
generations of insects
and preceding
the change in color
coming soon now
as fall arrives

Prismatic Impression

© Matthew Word Bain

having reached my destination
after driving toward the light
through a thunderstorm
in the early evening
it is often worth my while
to glance back whence I came

Modest Monument

© Matthew Word Bain

with shadows leaving room for the imagination
this stalwart structure steals the spotlight
for the last few hours of the day
on the corner, but a little out of the way

at first glance a rather straightforward facade
irregularities emerge upon closer inspection
a patchwork of reconsidered fenestration
and loss of lintels on the left
a bundle of yellow breathing tubes
hidden in the parking lot on the far side

this bundling of simplicity and symmetry
with an apparently complex history
a modest monument to story itself
its own story still being written

Where the Mountain Ends

© Matthew Word Bain

the cinderblock presents some little resistance
to the inexorable flow of chlorophyll
providing a vertical component
to the earth tones on the horizontal
while the ivy continues spilling over its sides
dancing as if down from the mountain
bringing a certain faerie cheer
to the drab, grey colors
of this lower realm

ONCE Pink Truck

© Matthew Word Bain

when I drove by in the morning
I saw ONE pink truck
and wanted to make a portrait
on my way back home
I had not thought through, however
the effect of Earth’s atmosphere
on the wavelengths of light
that would be hitting this truck
in the evening

this image I recorded
predicated on ONE pink truck
parked squarely in front of this house
home for the weekend
is lovely enough
the strangely pinkish orange
still a sight worth seeing
but I wish you could have seen it
hidden from the direct light of the sun
a subtle, glowing, and most unexpected pink
in this landscape of farm trucks and tractors
a breath of fresh, somewhat surreal, air…

At Your Service

© Matthew Word Bain

a most orderly appearance
if not conventionally attractive
offers its own sort of beauty
the sort that takes care of business
makes sure the stove is off
and the power on
ticks off boxes
so you don’t have to