Listen by John Terry
I was chatting to Judy Darley yesterday about John Terry and his poems and how I enjoyed our back and forth of writing when I was away in Barcelona, at home there seems little time to write letters. I was talking to her about how much I loved this poem he wrote after coming to my open studios back in 2009.
“Hi Carol, Just to say how much I enjoyed your open studio on Friday. Dammit, I even found myself sketching lines around the lines of your new Listening piece. No more than a sketch, just a response to your piece.You’re right, one has to keep sketching all the time. Thank you. john”
Listen
Listening (sculpture) Carol Peace
She rests one naked ear
against bare boards
and listens.
Furniture pushed away,
fitted carpet torn
from its grippers,
quilted underlay thrown aside.
Senses focused on sound
her stare sees nothing.
Does a faint vibration of life
seep through the ceiling
of the room below,
shiver the flat black nails
that clench floor to joists?
The house speaks changes
of temperature,
strength of wind.
One wall expands in sunlight,
another shrinks in shadow.
Tensions hold hands with tensions
until all quiver in sympathy:
every sash window, each ill-fitting door,
every lath beneath its plaster,
creaks sotto voce.
Is anybody there? she asks.
Among this whispered racket
of dead trees
is there one
recognisable human sound?
John Terry
You can buy his book here http://www.citychameleon.co.uk/publications.html
this was the sculpture which is now out of edition