Gaye Chapman
Glitter 14

Gaye Chapman
Glitter 13

Gaye Chapman
Glitter 8

Gaye Chapman
Glitter 4

Gaye Chapman
Glitter 3

Chinoiserie

(after Glitter: III, Gaye Chapman 2006)

English sparrow firmly planted
in an oriental garden, palaces
runaway lovers
fishing-boats & waterways
a willow-patterned past.

Today’s Chinese lovers
have their own apartments,
rock-bands & fast-fade jeans,
Western imperialism
in a different groove.

You can still buy the crockery
in Woolies, or any downtown
Chinese grocery store.



Margaret Bradstock.

Gaye Chapman
Glitter 1

Gaye Chapman
Decompose

Decompose

Somewhere between stasis and nullity
pre-putrescence
there is a flash
a moment of omniscience

In the cave of the dead
senses shroud
and the body wears viscera like a shawl
incandescent, swaddling the past

From melting flesh, a sightless spirit seeps
amoebic, incorporeal
ascends the stony stairway
seeking the black void beyond infinity


In response to Gaye Chapman’s ‘Decompose’.


© Sheryl Persson


The Butterfly Effect

‘Is the moon not there unless I can see it?’
- Einstein

Back home, but never back,
exploding like ectoplasm
across the empty rooms,
the decomposed gardens.

Old responsibilities, seasons
rise up, numinous
as christmas ghosts, this space
that once took us in.

For the cabbage nymph, or neophyte,
it’s chaos theory.
Dust on the snooker balls
might change

the moment of collision,
the dense stars wheeling
in the firmament,
or the response.



Margaret Bradstock.

Gaye Chapman
All this usless beauty III

Passengers


All this useless beauty
that bleeds into me
comes from you.

In this vehicle
we’re carrying a ghost
like a passenger
from one mind
to another

you come
as though there were no other
with joy in your eyes
you turn your voice low
and speak to me

this is all we can be
bright and perfect
attracting travellers
to the very core
of us.

All this useless beauty
that bleeds into me
comes from you.


-after all this useless beauty III, by Gaye Chapman

Gaye Chapman
All this useless Beauty II

Argonaut

A response to All this useless beauty II by Gaye Chapman

Only you hurt.
There is no way we can know
where you’ve been or why
but we are here now standing
around you you will not fall
we can show you the way
to strength you always knew you had.

It’s been a long time since
the wounded animal took shelter
curled tightly around itself unreachable.
Perhaps it will still die. It’s hard
standing on your own. Even harder leaning.
Try placing your feet together here
at the end of the circle look up towards
the middle take the first step
one very slow step into the spiral
each curve will comfort the echo of your tears
each chamber chart your growth
you will never be alone.

Whispers
feather light come come move on
we have had all the time in the world
we know how long it takes to form
to build rebuild ourselves over and over
until no-one would ever guess that we have
finally reached our beginning
retraced everything we knew loved trusted
the courage templates of our being
with the same touch that leads you
every inch however long it takes
around getting stronger
around forgetting everything
around remembering nothing
letting go
coming out of your shell.

Carolyne Bruyn

Gaye Chapman

All this useless Beauty I

Synesthesia

All that useless beauty
painting and poetry, their seeds
like old gods uncovered
from the rocky earth
whispering forgotten words.
You taste them on the tongue
as abandonment splatters
a sudden smudge of red.
Hearing the words
that trigger other senses
in a hybrid version
of vision and hearing
prickly pear tinged purple
takes one small step for turquoise
one giant leap for grey.
You hold to alchemy
catalyst for colouring the words
and from realms of possibility
comes all the useless beauty you can bear.


© Paula McKay

Gaye Chapman
Vanitas VI