Wild With Mist

(album: Spellbound - 2022)

Wild with mist, the Turner paintings shine
Upon the walls where I will stand and gaze
Embedded in the wind and water
Emboldened by the sight of other worlds

I wander through the softly spreading sunlight
Into another, and then another world
Seeing the heads of whales
Seeing the ships of night
Sighting places where Turner went to paint
Slipping into deep waters, to worlds much traveled
Sightings that would save the wind, the water and the sea
For me to dwell in

Drinking coffee in the lovely old café,
The dimly lighted restaurant where I sip my café au lait
Reading the guidebook to this old walled museum
Pitted with wind and rain
And bullet holes from some old battle in the streets
That lead down to the waterfront where the whaling ships of old
Sink in water to their knees
Like whales impaled on hooks of rusted steel and drowned in blood
Upon the black harpoons

I tip the waiter and go back to gaze
Upon the white misted scenes
That leap like visions from the canvas of the man
Who had a lover in a little sea-swept town near London
Mr. Turner in his fine black hat and unclouded eye
Who spied the magic in the water's mist
Among the ships

Wild with mist, the Turner paintings shine
Upon the walls where I stand and gaze