Painting a Wave

Lia Melia , "Songs of Melusina"

Painting a Wave

"Painting a wave requires no system,"
The painter said, painting a wave.
"Systems may get you flotsam and jetsam,
Seaweed and so forth. But never a wave."

There was a scroll or fine-lined curve
On the canvas first, and then what looked
Like hair flying or grayish nerves,
Which began to move as the painter worked.

"Painting the sea is a lot of trouble;
It never stops still for a moment, so
I try to make it internal, mental,
As though I stopped it, then let it go."

Something began to pulse and tumble
Out of the brushes, the ink, the chalk;
A long black line commenced to tremble,
Then, like a fishline, started to jerk...

With what at the end? "I think I've caught it,"
A drop of water hung by a hair,
"If I could only stop it a minute!"
The drop began to race somewhere.

Spreading out in every direction,
A bird of thread, caught in a storm,
Trying to say "Connection! Action!"
But in the end it was very calm.

Soon there was water under water,
And over the sand a sun...a moon?
Who could have seen that wave of water
One night ago? Or a thousand and one?

Who could have seen the lid of water
With its thin mascara of buoys and corks,
With its lined horizon's distant glimmer
Of maybe a skyline like New York's?

Now there will be that morning evening
Tide dyeing the water's pulse,
The wave drying in ink. The Wave.
Moving, momentous, motionless.

Howard Moss

Here is the question - how do you capture motion in art? Imagine the days before photography, before slow motion, the days when people didn't know if all four hoofs of a running horse left the ground midstride, or if one was always touching the ground. The things we have seen since! I've spent my share of time watching extreme slow motion videos of bursting water balloons and watermelons on Youtube, and it's utterly fascinating. But how does an artist approach the task of portraying motion - in a still, unmoving medium? I love how this poem looks at that question.