Painting Understands Its Scientific Aspirations
(for Hilma af Klint)
As No Color Can be Considered Stationary
(after Wittgenstein’s Remarks On Colour)
[Dear Hilma,]
I do not mean to make scientific inquiry into them. You are given of every molecule. Sunshine. Frozen lake. Below ourselves we can feel the tools. Symbols of mathematicians. Of the grass phrase rippling gladness. Liquid to atom. Atom to electron. But I am not my nature. We are haunted by the word reality. Sparkling waves scurrying intention.
[Dear Hilma,]
I want to write to you on a sheet of pink. Wanting pink to call you Hilma. I have something to say and limited time. Pink corners of conversation. Starting point 00 00.
The Contiguous Edges Perform in the Phenomenon
(for Hilma af Klint)
Sarah Mangold is a NEA fellow and the author of three books of poetry: Giraffes of Devotion (Kore Press), Electrical Theories of Femininity (Black Radish), and Household Mechanics (New Issues, selected by C.D. Wright). She lives near Seattle and is currently working on a book of poems about the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint.