Easel, poem

The poem "Ezel" by Brian Turner, published in Bullitt in 2005, describes a painting process. Nather uses blue oil and yellow cadmium to create a sky with ravens and date palms. However, Nather becomes uncertain as the heat causes the figures to blur and fade. There are no shadows to anchor them, and everything is consumed by light and heat. The sky ultimately washes out in blue. There's a poem titled, Ezel, written by Brian Turner, published on here, Bullitt, 2005. Nather loads the brush with river blue oil, mixes it with yellow cadmium and stone, to paint a sky made of light and dust, where ravens fly and date palms open, in a burst of green, with no trunks, painted in to hold them, the shiny fronds drift like epiphytes on the wind, Nather pauses, unsure, there is too much heat, figures of people fade into a canvas blur, mere phantoms of paint, their features unrecoverable, their legs disappearing beneath them as Nather realizes, there are no shadows to hold them down, no slant and fall of shadow, light's counterpoint, the dark processing of thought, all burns in light here, all rises in heat as colored tongues lift in flame, brush stroke by brush stroke, an erasure, the sky washes out in blue.