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Autumn Rhythm: Number 30, 1950

Dead leaves, snow and blacktop
sing a chilly autumn music.
The weather's elegant and loopy.
Cold air's alive.
Taxis, shoppers, squirrels race around
leaving tracks everywhere.
Things will die with winter
but I'll fix these movements
in absorbent paint
to preserve a piece of New York in autumn.

(from Fifteen Paintings by Jackson Pollock)

No. 3/No. 13 (Magenta, Black, Green on Orange), 1949

I'm starting to learn my themes:
death is black
I'll put it near the center
surrounded by magenta, white and green
I'll have them all float
on an orange background,
my favorite color
Life is poetic
like glowing rectangles

(from Fifty Paintings by Mark Rothko)

Alfred Mitchell's "In Morning Light"

Sun's beginning to warm the air.
Sand's still cool and wet between my toes.
A fresh breeze wets my face.
Cliffs tower over me.
I may swim later
or take one of these dinghies out.
For now I just look at this morning light,
this light.

(from Twenty Paintings by California Impressionists)

MARC ELIHU HOFSTADTER is the author of House of Peace (Mother's Hen, 1999).  His latest book of poetry is VISIONS   paintings seen through the optic of poetry. (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2001).  His poetry has appeared in Talisman, Exquisite Corpse, The Hawai'i Review, Confrontation, Pearl, The Carquinex Review and elsewhere.

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