{"id":25433,"date":"2022-05-20T16:35:50","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:35:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=25433"},"modified":"2022-05-20T16:35:57","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T20:35:57","slug":"a-figure-seen-from-the-back-forever-approaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2022\/05\/a-figure-seen-from-the-back-forever-approaching\/","title":{"rendered":"A Figure, Seen from the Back, Forever Approaching"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

[Image: “Mind Your Head,” by John E. Simpson. (Shared here under a Creative Commons License; for more information, see this page<\/a> at <\/em>RAMH.)]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will be leaving Las Vegas on June 1 — headed first for the Grand Canyon, and then for a Grand Tour of California: Joshua Tree, and then over to San Diego and on up the coast to see the redwoods in the north. (We’ll do a little jog east for Yosemite and Tahoe, somewhere in the middle.) Neither of us has spent much time in the state before — no time at all since we’ve been together (pushing 30 years now)… so we’re looking forward to making its acquaintance, even for just the month we’re there. I wonder if we’ll recognize each of the sights we’ve always imagined, separately and as one?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, with less than two weeks left before we hit the road again, this time for 100% unknown territory, I approached whiskey river<\/em> this week not with trepidation, but with a certain, well, mindset — my mind’s eye turned to horizons never before seen. And found<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imaginary Paintings<\/strong><\/p>

1. How I Would Paint the Future<\/p>

A strip of horizon and a figure,
seen from the back, forever approaching.<\/p>

2. How I Would Paint Happiness<\/p>

Something sudden, a windfall,
a meteor shower. No—
a flowering tree releasing
all its blossoms at once,
and the one standing beneath it
unexpectedly robed in bloom,
transformed into a stranger
too beautiful to touch.<\/p>

3. How I Would Paint Death<\/p>

White on white or black on black.
No ground, no figure. An immense canvas,
which I will never finish.<\/p>

4. How I Would Paint Love<\/p>

I would not paint love.<\/p>

5. How I Would Paint the Leap of Faith<\/p>

A black cat jumping up three feet
to reach a three-inch shelf.<\/p>

Smooth, and deceptively small
so that it can be swallowed
like something we take for a cold.
An elongated capsule,
an elegant cylinder,
sweet and glossy,
that pleases the tongue
and goes down easy,
never mind
the poison inside.<\/p>

6. How I Would Paint the Big Lie<\/p>

7. How I Would Paint Nostalgia<\/p>

An old-fashioned painting, a genre piece.
People in bright and dark clothing.
A radiant bride in white
standing above a waterfall,
watching the water rush
away, away, away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(Lisel Mueller [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Closer to home, such as it is, I spent the last week forcing myself to read a book by an author with whom I was completely unfamiliar. Now, I am typically a generous reader — inclined to give every author the benefit of even many doubts. This particular author — let’s call them X — has apparently had a very successful career so far: numerous novels, a Pushcart Prize for short stories, many loyal readers. The book I read was the first of a new series with an intriguing premise: a young true-crime reporter, a woman at that, in 1880s New York City. All of which hinted at the prospect of a quick, light read, very much what I was looking for after Richard Powers’s The Overstory<\/em>…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously I’m being a little coy about not identifying X or even X’s book. That I caught up with it, took it by the shoulders and turned it around — only to wince at what I’d committed to — well, yes, I was very, very disappointed. But disappointment isn’t an objective perception; it has more to do with the expectations<\/em> brought to an experience than it has to do with the experience itself, and to this extent it reveals a flaw between one’s own ears — not necessarily (in this case) a flaw between an author’s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that level-headedness and high-minded professionalism aside, I can’t resist wrapping up this post something as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imaginary Paintings (cont’d)<\/strong><\/p>

8. How I Would Paint X’s Book<\/p>

Gray corseted prose,
draping shirt-cardboard figures.
Statements of the obvious
cribbed from Wikipedia
and offered to the reader
in colored-cellophane drapery,
as though transparent giftwrap
could transfigure misshapen contents.
A finish line staggered across,
breathlessly, panting for refreshment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

(JES)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “Mind Your Head,” by John E. Simpson. (Shared here under a Creative Commons License; for more information, see this page at RAMH.)] We will be leaving Las Vegas on June 1 — headed first for the Grand Canyon, and then for a Grand Tour of California: Joshua Tree, and then over to San Diego […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Lisel Mueller, inspiring a meditation on things coming up: 'A Figure, Seen from the Back, Forever Approaching'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,5433,4949,1393,4701,250,5,4878,251,372],"tags":[136,379,915,2314,3350,5213,5552],"class_list":{"0":"post-25433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-everyday-life","7":"category-road-trip-2021","8":"category-retirement","9":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","10":"category-my-photography","11":"category-art","12":"category-06_writing","13":"category-fiction","14":"category-poetry-writing_cat","15":"category-style-and-craft","16":"tag-book-reviews","17":"tag-diminished-expectations","18":"tag-hope","19":"tag-lisel-mueller","20":"tag-parody","21":"tag-expectations","22":"tag-california","23":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-6Cd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25433"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25445,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25433\/revisions\/25445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}