Lavender Mist, by Leland James

Lavender Mist, by Jackson Pollock (USA). 1950.

Lavender Mist

Jackson Pollock, 1950,
oil, enamel, and aluminum on canvas:
221 x 299.7 cm (87 x 118 in)

framed canvas     grained  
pave of parking lot
igneous rock          flood tide
brown shrike

pigeonshit off-white
streaked                       dribbled down

--the ghost of Pollock
squatting motion
playing about the edges
fingers   flown--

        suddenly
I fell     into the lavender
the gritty mist I glimpse
the not quite           paradigm

​Leland James

Leland James is the author of seven books of poetry and two books on creative writing and poetry craft. He has published over 200 poems in journals and magazines worldwide; also a number of short stories, including The Lyric, Form Quarterly, Rattle, The South Carolina Review, The Spoon River Poetry Review, New Millennium Writings, HQ The Haiku Quarterly, The American Cowboy; The London Reader, and London Magazine. He was the winner of The UK’s prestigious Aesthetica Creative Writing Award. He has won or received honors in many other competitions, both in the USA and Europe. Leland has been featured in Ted Koozer’s American Life in Poetry and was recently nominated for a Push Cart Prize. www.lelandjamespoet.com