Two After JMW Turner, by Kenneth Boyd

View of Richmond Hill and Bridge, by JMW Turner (England) 1805

​View of Richmond Hill and Bridge
 
Beyond the horizon lies a sylvan shrine’s design
Comparable redemption to a risen bride’s design
 
Previsioned trustees of galleried skies
Custodians of artistry in a mime's moon-like design
 
Connection and division of nature’s debate
Accessible congress tracing the stars’ design
 
Who knows their ordered appearance
Recurring scenes sweep in an untenable design
 
Innumerable abstracts of memorial intuition
Unselfish finesse whets the drifting mind’s design 
 
Repeating four refrains for tenured travelers
Themselves recitals in rhythmic design
 
Inspiring mornings of inquiring torches 
Resulting impressions of a lost design 
 
Descending rites of nourishing affection
Ascending seedlings climb in instinctual design 

Not unlike beholding Etruscan premonitions
With sculpted boughs in fathoms of time’s design 
 
Awake me with the birth of beauty’s chime 
Unheard between the deep and divine design

Norham Castle, Sunrise, by JMW Turner (England) 1845

Norham Castle, Sunrise

[1]
As light
Deprives darkness
Spectres of renascence
Revive errant seasons to live
Redeemed
 
[2]
As haze
Floats blind over
Persistent redeemers 
Prodigal daybreak rescinds night’s 
Blind shroud

Kenneth Boyd

Kenneth Boyd, winner of the Royal Palm Literary Award (RPLA) and a judge for the 2025 awards, is a poet and former jazz musician. His poetry appears in Wayfarer Magazine, Flora Fiction, and the Viewless Wings Podcast. His collection, Grasshopper Dreams, was published in 2023. Kenneth is a graduate of the UCLA Extension Creative Writing Program. He is an Assistant Editor at Southland Alibi. He lives in Northeast Florida with his wife and dog, Stella