Moving Pictures, by Antonia Clark

Lascaux Cave Painting (France) c. 15000 BC. EUX, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

​Moving Pictures

You can still see them
galloping across the plain:
horses, bison, deer.

You’ll see the motion
in their many legs, their manes
flying in the wind.

You’ll swear the mammoth
turned its shaggy head to watch
as you walked by.

Without production
technology, camera crews,
stereoscopy,

cave artists conjured
movement, simulated speed,
delineated grace

working rough magic
with flickering light and shadow
playing on rock walls.

Imagination
was all they had for software
and all they needed.

Even Picasso, 
not known for humility,
called them his masters.

Antonia Clark

​Antonia Clark has enjoyed a long career as a medical writer and editor. She has also taught poetry and fiction writing and has co-administered The Waters Poetry forum for 16 years. In addition to many journal publications, Antonia has published two full-length poetry collections, Chameleon Moon and Dance Craze. She lives in Vermont, paints abstract landscapes, reads voraciously, loves French picnics, and plays French café music on a sparkly purple accordion.