the senses delight

(the surface of the world)

pure apprehension
is blindness

you can go to the edge
of particularity

to touch the essence
is to hold no thing

in the great emptiness
of awareness

the desert of pure
light

the agony of possibility

(we are all seafarers)
seeking the great loss

of burden

the physics of this world

the mind

too deep inside

motion

pure and soundless

indeed

the earth the sky
give structure

the heart knows
no place or way
of being

we seek the centre
of everything

every act

we look for it
as if behind the eyes
of another

or seek it as
the principle underlying
any design

in nature

we make ideal pictures
of what appears

and try to account for
this knowing

here is the end point

we cannot
be otherwise

the answer
and the question

just is

what we
do.



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

in war

the focus is the mistake

the ground is always
undefined

it is an unknown history

(you may have
some reports)

the first task
is to determine

the target

and in so doing
the outcome

the question is always

can you get at the heart?

where there are
fortifications

avoid direct attack

best to infiltrate
as an admirer

of the battlements

do not offer gold

it is the first sign
of deceit

only truth can open
the door

it is the great seducer

the enemy's eyes
always seek beyond

the presentation

you gain advantage
by appearing

to not know
how to conceal

a weakness

the making of the false
objective

is the end game

the origin of attack
needs always to be

unknown
to the victim

the act itself
is irrelevant

victory is a decision

its mark is

silence



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

the melody / and dance
is logic

the utterness in display

the eternity (mind space)
of a plant (or anything)
that grows

and returns

as if the point
just to reach up
and out

the display / the showing

the vanity of being

in the discreet
movements

of the self-aware

forms

we make out of
dirt and rock

monuments to thought

nothingness
reflected

and the words
and the rivers

flow



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

awareness

we live always
in context

to think outside of all
practicalities

is to despair
or imagine God

the question of joy
or suffering

a matter of mood
and the subtlety of
chemistry

/ and here even the stars
might say

so

clarity is sharp focus
and being

determined in the moment

here is precision

and the absence
of doubt

the trick is

denial / what to
exclude



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

in those days
when the years were fenced
quarter acre blocks

and there were no cars
on dirt roads

only the old tree
stood for everything
past

and the beauty of time

in the sandy-haired boy

the light was the light
of the sun

here is the beginning
of awareness

only in knowledge

the question of opposites

the horror / delight
begins

out of need
and reason

a chaos of art



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007

the picture is always
complete

each moment
fecund

there is a peace
(in the absence
of mind)

emotion
is more than just
action or its
cause

the world painted
invisible

in constant
drama

of depth and reach

(the infinities
of each heart)

unknown to the trees
birds or sky

there is a madness

not seen by stars

or felt in the sea

played out to

nothing

as if the world

transfixed



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

and so

there is no explanation
of anything

what would it look like?

a sky behind
the sky?

and for what?

we must describe
true

and each picture
drawn

is made to represent

not because it does

but because it must

the activity of being

is its own reason

this the hardest truth

of all



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007

madness

madness

is every man's choice
(the decision to be

and maintain
against)

it is the history of all detail
and the peculiarity
of each list

sanity a blank slate
a theoretical template

(it is the collapse
into space)

you can protect
yourself

with reason and passion

tools for
the defence

of beauty



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

the heart is empty

the heart is empty
but for the play of
light or shadow

decisions

to hold darkness

(this the history of
substance)

necessary for
to know the light
and so

the making of forms
each distinguishable

by its blackness

the weight
the depth
the expanse

the degree

(we make ourselves
in terms of the colours
given by other hearts

the white hair of love

and blue eyes of
affirmation

just passing on a street

or the invisible hand
of denial

is no colour

or

an unkindness
you can never
be rid

the taste of

here is definition

(and it is the work of a life

above and under
the sea

blind or clear
sighted)

rest / is chosen

a mathematical calculation

the invention of a
platform

(imaginations
cover for

the great absence)

metaphysics
for a briefness

that moment
you stop thinking

true joy

even so

you come to know

beneath the panorama of

the great and endless
light show

there is no source

just a plane of glass

that holds no

reflection

still



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

things

the material world
is

for consciousness

a metaphor

of form
and content

shape and substance

in the eyes
of indeterminacy

the acquistion
and possession

of things

is a constant
assertion of

and promise of

the denial of

an inner emptiness

and a lack of
definition



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.