Two lost ones walk proudly into the picture,
What do we make of this brown figure striding
or the orange one smaller, momently pausing?
A brother and sister confidently marching
into a future unknown to either?
Klee invites us to picture two small minds working.
The sister’s right arm beckons her brother
“Follow me this way” she seems to be saying
and the brother obedient goes into the blue.
We watchers see obstacles lying before them,
brown boulders lie heavy in azure blue water
but the sand they are treading offers a pathway;
there could be a land not a sea passage through,
although a long darkness snuffles the border.
What if they choose the blue passage beckoning?
Is it salt or fresh water which offers discovery?
The ships of Magellan found fresh water flowing
till salt water showed them a way to the east,
(probing northwards the mighty St Lawrence river
led to trade with red Indians but never to spices).
Klee’s painting invites us to ponder life’s choices,
Odysseus attempting to sail back to Ithaca,
Conrad’s strong seamen braving the ocean,
other stories of heroes fighting precarity,
humanity trying to solve a blue mystery,
sensing the threat of death near approaching.
Was that why Klee drew a king who was weeping?
Novels often show heroes finding their way.
Conrad shows us MacWhirr and Lord Jim,
one lacking, one owning a strong imagination.
Better to have none when facing disaster?
So what do we make of Klee’s everyday two,
looking with confidence at dark ways and blue ways?
Klee invites us to imagine our own journey through.
©Terry Hodgson2023
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