Jeffree Skewes # 24 Desert Songs 1-3

Desert song  (i)


Desert journey

traverses solitude reality

nothing but lizards eyes notice

heaven is busy somewhere else

no direction crisscrossed confused

at its core desert has no edge

horizons mirage endless futures

behind only forgotten history

myths aside there are no tides

skeletal ribs of ancient ships

purified tiny shifting gains of sand  

blown with the running wind

image: desert stage 1. - installation maquette / sand silk rice paper ink digital photo jskewes

Desert song (ii) 


In the desert you thought you knew

the sound of muffled emptiness

looking down foot runch

speaks new dimensions

distilling materia inertia

sieving gold from sand unfortunate

useless in this maze of circles

underground trapped water

caressed and corralled by

anxiety in empty wilderness

its only prize the fleeing shade

and water

image: untitled  synthetic polymer paint on stretched canvas / jeskewes  







Desert song (iii)

solitary song under-breath

beats a desert trance

into wind and ice

sheering off southern bearings

chant chant chant chant

single focus a diversion

rhythm plays for keeps

headed for the heart

somehow spiraling orbit

steers a nomad's course

with silken coordinates

plucks softer grass and gentle slopes

to at last Lhasa

image: Silk on the Road Drawing / silk ribbon & fabric rice paper ink on interfacing scroll detail / jskewes