I have been writing poetry all of my life. In fact, I collect words and phrases that have been meaningful to me over the years. One day soon, I hope to publish a book about my collection of words named “Word Paintings.” As an architect I am required to verbalize the reasons why a project is planned or designed in a certain way. I find that ideas materialize, or can be inspired by, a single word or a phrase that best describes the intended outcome. Because verbalizing abstract ideas is so difficult, I often rely on poetry to communicate my emotions, visions and ideas about the places I am hoping to create. Often the poetry is conceived at the beginning of the project although it has “arrived” during the process and at the end as reflections looking back at the process. For whatever reason, poetry is a powerful connection that reflects Mies van der Rohe’s thought, “less is more.”
- Rand Elliott, FAIA
1
For Wagon Wheel Country Club
2 For North
3 For North
4 For an art installation
5 A study of light, shade and shadow
6 Light as inspiration
7 For Ackerman McQueen, Tulsa
8 For 222 Residence
9 For ESEO
10 An effort to describe the creative process
Pioneers.
Wheat and great green,
cattle and
farms.
There is oil and twisting wind,
heat
hail.
There is plowed soil
with deep furrows
and terraces to hold the rain.
Tractors and tin wedges
are dots in the field.
Big hands and a farmer’s tan
signal heroes of the land.
Look for shade and shelter.
Welcome the southern breeze and be careful of the north.
The earth and sky touch
as the building emerges from the soil.
Landscape.
Landmark.
Look west and celebrate sundown.
the
light melts
all edges,
and the floor
falls away.
you float in white.
whispering.
trying to describe
the jubilation of
nothing.
He
knew the light
and
those shards of shadow.
He was here first.
Was his light the same
as mine?
He saw new and I see old?
Yet
contact is made.
Through blood we made space.
A glowing chamber where
light lives.
North.
Light.
STARE.
There are no pictures or pages
No periods or punctuation
No paragraphs.
There is no switch or shade
No stem
No shape.
There are no words.
Only an endless story
Buried in a bright line.
Reading. Light.
White
ignites the word
and cools the edge in umbra.
Darkness is intercepted rays.
Speak with shadows to hear
a message from the light.
A hot, thin line divides
the secret from the source.
That blur, where it is and
it is not.
Traveling as the voice of shadow,
the moment
nothing is poured full.
Same but south.
The edge where the sun and the moon
are one.
Blinding.
Quiet.
Reflective of the first form.
Light...is a clear shadow.
Can
I be a sunbeam?
The light speaks to me
dances for me
sings for me
surprises me.
I am the lights’ muse.
Throwing
electrons on frost,
Blue dreams begin.
A hot plane from the box of light.
Hypnotic.
Staring.
Blue moves and speaks a wish.
Now is new.
Moments
When
time is frozen
and the spirit divine
A
moment when you
Count raindrops.
Climb a tree.
Howl at the moon.
Listen to the wind applaud.
Catch lightning bugs
and smile big.
Collect leaves.
Star gaze.
Life is alive.
Make
a place.
No.
Be a place
Where form dissolves.
Make a shelter with a roof of stars
and walls of vapor.
Let the floor be a slab of soil
earth bound.
Know the moment,
When I and it connect.
Clearly.
Profoundly.
When joy is.
SHADOW CATCHER
We
are merely stewards of this sacred land,
here for only a moment
Touch it lightly.
Grow
a sheltering roof from steel branches
and cover a patch of ground
so humans can work in the shadow.
Make it rocky and rusty
and let a bird soar through.
Make
a campfire for the spirits
placed in an orchard of Redbud trees
and laced with grass that bleeds.
Ponder the sunset and listen to the steel rust.
IDEATE
Listen
to the black ink.
Lines and letters
deliver soul and make magic
on a white plane.
Search for the light
and make forms
that leave you silent.
Be clear.
Let your voice tell of a place
that has never been
but will be limpid and luminous.
The explorer knows the way
to make you stop.
Listen.
The space will speak.