Tony Beyer



Secrets in plain sight

after Simon Denny


1

the eagle clutching the world’s
cables in its talons is a truly

                sinister image
                                              suggesting
                the designer went too far

said too much         was too upfront


2

raising the question
of who owns a government

                contracted artist’s work
                to say nothing of a

government funded artist’s work
that might not exist without the funds


3

suspicion is a deeply ingrained
learned condition
of thought/ behaviour

some secrets are secrets
only because some people
like to have secrets

it’s the keepers whose scrutiny
requires scrutiny


4

to make too much information
cohere/release meaning

                the image is the material
                engaging the reader

a book presented
in 3-dimensions/detail


5

image as material
not appropriated

but incorporated
not so much quoted

but critiqued
or re-viewed in a wider

relevance/context


6

ignorance/neglect of history
but also of necessary present knowledge

                art and ethics as compromised
                as politics and ethics
                                                             the citizens

withdraw from politics
enabling politics to take over their lives


7

don’t want to say
U S A



from Come To Pass


2

in the Museum of Masculine Life
the discredited virtues
of reticence resilience reliability
are personified not by soldiers
or football players but by tireless men
wearing short floral aprons
performing household tasks

the curator of oaths
swears by this approach
and can do so in a considerable range
of regional accents and dialects
many of them no longer to be heard
outside the scope of this project
or the confines of these premises



Black paintings 1-7 (rainbow)


the third dimension
is secretive
undeclared

on the surface only
as in a mirror
or wave of the sea

pavement
rubbed dry by footprints
in the sun

there are no
parallels
no comparisons

available
from the world
augmented by these




Tony Beyer’s new book, Anchor Stone (Cold Hub Press, 2017), has been long-listed for the New Zealand Book Award for poetry.
 
 
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