From Paris to China Via the Royal Academy
I shrugged off Mid-Wales
And wiped the floodwater from my feet in the doorway of Daunt’s
To be greeted by Jane, as slim as she was Thynne
In her striking reds for an ‘Appointment in Paris’.
We toasted her pages; our many faces were sunflowers
Gazing up at her glittering from her balcony speech.
Daylight directed my visit to Kiefer. Overpowering his own idol
In gold and size, the scale of enormity invisibly split for gallery entry,
His twigs and a scythe embellished the inches of oil and acrylic
And the sediment of electrolysis that fixed the mind to the canvas
As if it were stitched in. And then at Christie’s
Gyles Brandreth and Michele felt like old friends
In the gateway welcome of Snowdon and Greig
Who had nailed down the necessary elements
To embellish the stage from which flying wild swans
Would soar into the night sky over London
When Jung Chang stood before us and set them free,
So that something born of China could live, breathe
And bear testament to the secrecies
Of which we are otherwise ignorant.
