Hawk Country by Nicholas Kriefall
Homage to Pythagoras
as a child outlines shadows with chalk-stone
comes harp strings raining liquid music
within the music of music
reed pipes are birds rising up to birds
in the trees
night sky is a blue notebook of divinity of the trinity
in the triangle’s equalities, falling asleep he glimpses
interior fractals, tome of the dome of visions—
comes this annoying person to stone cutters and masons
seeking geometric-forms in buildings
winding people up when he acts the simpleton—
ripples on a pond are mathematics of circles
he too reverences the disrobing ceremony at Eleusis
she emerges dripping seawater, pudenda shaded
across her naval by the right hand and forearm on the left thigh
man is a hoofed-creature with horns, fleece-limbed
pouring water from the amphora
dislodging flower petals that cover her nakedness
and the ocean full of spectators throwing flowers
heavy with pollen from their baskets
comes the answer at Delphos:
bearing his lesson on numbers
illustrated by enumerating fingers
1+2+3+4 both hands raised show 10
exile to Metapontem, stops eating, passes over alone—
like Socrates, nothing left in writing
neither scroll, fragment or jotting
Aristoxenes first biographer, followed by Plato’s
borrowings, so too Empedocles, Euclid, many others
the vegetarian, musician, mathematician
fundamentalist on reincarnation & metempsychosis
nicknamed ‘Pye’ (π) after his infinite number
About the author:
Kevin Kiely, poet, critic, author; PhD (UCD) in the Patronage of Poetry at the Edward Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University; W. J. Fulbright Scholar in Poetry, Washington (DC); M. Phil., in Poetry, Trinity College (Dublin); Hon. Fellow in Writing., University of Iowa; Patrick Kavanagh Fellowship Award in Poetry; Bisto Award Winner.
In the artist’s words:
Nicholas Kriefall. A native to the Midwest, I have always been drawn to nature, be it the sea that stemmed from childhood trips to the coast and a young introduction to snorkeling, or the rock formations out west during summer excursions. Along with learning about Hemingway through my father, his tale of an old man battling elements beyond him, and the fact that we know more about foreign worlds than our own, the encompassing truth and mystery of our planet’s identity has ever fascinated me. My current collection deals with the relationship between us and the key elements of nature, whether hostile or dependent, and the delicate balance of one’s need for the other. Using colors, shapes, and texture over multiple layers, I explore the comfort and animosity of a place revisited or newly imagined, continuously experimenting with visual depth, and incorporating a certain emotion as a map spills from mind to the canvas. My work has won numerous awards, been featured on HGTV, and represented by notable galleries in New York, Atlanta, Ft Lauderdale, Chicago, Kansas City, and St. Louis, where I currently reside.