after UTERUS by Guglielmo Alberto Nacci (oil on canvas, 2017)
Dive into the dimension of time like a womb
of freshwater: umbilical lilies, conductor for cloud-work.
There is no movement when every moment is written
with transcendental numbers. Polygon, archway, tesseract.
Human forms transparent as time itself.
What’s not to recognize? Tracking a skylark’s spoor
out a glade once dreamed. Water-chatter like hoppers.
Nothing like waking in tired arms of the Pacific, but cycloning
under seamounts, charmed by the green, so much
like an idea—submerging, wandering, reminding.
I am here and there and in utero again, grass-lined steps to the northside
of falling. Frozen earths and before-us microcosms, lifelines
with faces framed in the architecture. Now stand at center.
Catch the cello, steel drums, woodwinds. The way thunder
complements the coming-together of worlds.
And it cradles, always. Echoing sounds performing as light.
Petrichor off the marsh maples, the embrace of pillowing snow
to saddle in as it soars. Something like the universe
after flying far enough, to awaken at the edge, mushrooms
blooming through my rippled reflection, ascending.
In the summer of 2022, Jonathan and Adam collaborated for the first time, prompted by an email from Jonathan with various paintings for a joint ekphrasis. Out of all the work shared, they were both drawn to the work of Guglielmo Alberto Nacci. And with this, the poem “Matrix of Beauty” was born, leveraging email to draft, edit, and collect the words that poured forth as they separately took in Nacci’s work. Since then, Jonathan and Adam continued their collaborations, and even had one poem nominated for a Pushcart Prize. They are both deeply influenced by the various shapes art can take—paintings, music, writing, etc.—and what better way to explore the vast intricacies of the world than teaming up and seeing what new creations can come about.
