(Below is a Fiber-Glass artwork "PLAY-TIME WITH MIRO'" that I happen to have made and fortunately exhibited at Green Belt 3, Makati City as a finalist at the Instituto Cervantes "Letras Y Figuras" Art Competition 2004)





STAINED-GLASS EYES

By: Gerry N. Peralta


First the mind’s a frame

Of black curves and dark designs


Twisting and conjoining steel

To form the image of immanent glass


Then Aztec gold is slowly laved,

Here, and Mandarin orange,

There, royal blue beside emerald green,

Deep purple conniving

With amber


Slot by slot-

Till the whole is a class act


Of light dazzling through matter

In a ménage a trois with color.


But everything is a play on the eye-

Like a slide on television


HXK-2, the chemical for ice boxes

And bathtubs, is stirred

With a dollop of hardener,


Then poured quickly on glass fibers,

That tighten instantly

Into pure plastic!


No matter-


The Sunday churchgoer

Looks up and beholds

What he believes in


Heaven, the saints and angels,

Garden of Eden, creation!


The word made glass-


Stained by his own eyes!






SANS PINCE-NEZ

By Gerry Peralta

I remove, when I write,
My reading glasses
The more to blur the edges
So words take on a shade
All their own

Darker, than the ribbon
In my typewriter
Softer, than onion skin paper

Then the dot in “icon” becomes
A halo, the “H” in Hell
Grows horns
In mantra the “a's” develop an aura
And the “o” in God
Becomes a heavenly host!

Even the haha in brouhaha goes
“hahaha”!

Then when I put my glasses back on
The words take on-
A glaring clarity
Meant more for my proof reader and/or
Editor

Go ahead, read again this poem
Sans pince-nez

See for yourself!