In Japanese Art, Size Is Relative

 

IN JAPANESE ART, REMEMBER,

SIZE IS ALWAYS RELATIVE

            for Michael Collins

Even after they moved you, Michael,

away from that corner

where you sat with your tripod,

focused on each man and woman

boarding chained for deportation,

this image of you unfazed

by the jaws of the outsized backhoe,

sustains me in my study. I step

back of necessity searching words,

James Baldwin say, writing

of his mentor, Beauford Delaney,

the painter, no greater lover

has ever held a brush.

Acts of love in witness and image.

 

Jim

22 August 2020