Why poetry? I thought Juet made sculptures…

Writing poems for our sculptures was part of our process from the very beginning. For us it connected form and feeling, it allowed the sculpture to speak to us and for us to understand it. For some people it was an entry point to help bridge the gap that sometimes arises when viewing sculpture.

And the process?

The process of sculpture and poetry for us is very similar. We allow the emotional brain to run the show before we let judgement and practical brain a say. For sculpture it is the difference between the play phase and the construction. For poetry it is the difference between random lines and analogies and a finished piece of writing. Sometimes the most difficult decision for both is knowing when to stop.

Can we read some?

On these pages are a small selection of poems loosely grouped in themes. they were written for sculptures between the years of 2013 to 2023. Enjoy.

Poems of intimacy

“Osmosis”

(2015)

I have absorbed you slowly

Over years

Drawing you into my body through skin and flesh and blood

Until you crossed the threshold

And broke into my cells

Whose walls fell like paper as you seeped in

Filling me with the force of life

I am now flooded with you

And can now breathe and grow

All the way to the insatiate sky

Where as all before you

Was but thirsty and dry

After Love Embrace

(2015)

After the fierce wind of my breathing

Calms to return me to my body

And after coyly averting her eyes

The night resumes her watch

And after the universe

Having been dragged in and entangled around us

Slows again to its patient poise

I resurface in the moment

And at once find myself

Vulnerable, open and exposed

The bed

The floor

And even the earth itself

Disappear beneath me and I am left

Just one exhale away from oblivion

And all I have

Is your after love embrace

To save me from forever falling

"The shadow of the moon"

(2014)

I wait for you in the shadow of the moon

Whilst its soft light drips

From the darkened overhang of the night

My chest heaves and aches

To step into its luster

To revel in its joyous desire

To soak myself in silver

But on the brink of my surrender

The clouds of your sleeping breath

Render me back into the darkness

Poems of joy and exultation.

White Sails

(2015)

She stands wistful on the bow of the cliff

Watching the white sails below

She can feel her shirt swell and billow

As it catches the cool southwester

She runs her fingers through salt wet hair

And can taste its zing on her lips

She runs and leaps

Whoops and cries

Rising and falling over the grassy slope

And for a moment

She is alive in the sea and the wind and the sky

Under the full sail of her innocence

Waiting for the Eagle

(2014)

Take me to the wild cliff

Cut deep into my civility

Claw out my fear and drag it

Kicking and screaming towards the precipitous edge

Let me feel the surge of the updraft

Buffeting and shaking me

Biting sharp like the sting of frozen rain

Upon my complacency

I want to feel sharp talons

Grasp and lift me

And feel the wind draw exultant tears

Taking me higher

So high, that I may sing my bursting heart

To the very sun itself

Under the wave

 (2014)

Under the wave

Like first love I am dragged in and under

Surrendering my will to the green

My skin, salt stung

My limbs loosened in the wash

Up and out the other side

Shaking my head clear to the horizon

The sounds from the shore are only shadows

As the light dances off the top of the crest

I wonder whether the sun can see a reflection of my eyes

Poems from the shadows

“The Last Road”

 (2021)

This road we come to weary and often alone

It’s corners like shadowing fingers beckoning us onwards

There is no turning back

At each step we lose a part of ourselves

Our hair, our eyes, our voice, our arms, our knees, our blistered feet

Then finally our appetite and our will

But on we walk

Until we are just a heartbeat

Fading into the mist

“Falling Leaf”

 (2021)

Some days I cry like falling leaf

Unseen and unheard

In a helpless drift of a wingless bird

The Long Night

 (2016)

A long night is like a journey

Measured not in steps

But in the slowing motion of the clock

Whose rhythm stills to an eddy

Becoming blanket quiet

When you reach the bottom of the valley

The darkness lies like dew

Your fears lurk furtively

And your doubts swell as storm clouds

Insecure sharp crags

Catch the unwary traveller

I myself have fallen

And have had to crawl hand and knee

With the last remnants of the night clinging like dust

Longing for the dawn to lift me out

Poems of Kin

My Daughters Bowl

(2015)

She has grown

Still delicate but surprisingly strong

Holding her bowl for precious alms

The world may give her

Her awkward beauty

Is but a light touch from

Her innocence and the pause between the inevitable rain

A pause that welcomes my transient daughter

Who has taken shape

But holds no water

Seven Things

 (2016)

My son

There are seven things you should carry in your pocket

1x ounce of luck: Just thinking it makes it so

1x piece of steel: For when others wish to test you

1x touch of imagination: So you can always fit square pegs into round holes

1x sense of gravity: To keep your feet on the ground

1x bit of empty space: Just for yourself

1x view of innocence: For everything looks better through this

1x little bit of joy: For it is in the little things that joy resides

“Letting Go”

 (2021)

Fly my windblown child

Stretch my heart from the earth and the sky

Between your bright horizon and my fading eye

Be like the falling sun, surrender your reminiscent rays

So we can allow the night to divide our days.