Michael Heller's Poetic Response to Jane Joseph's Etchings

Michael Heller wrote a poetic essay responding to Jane Joseph's etchings, published on July 23, 2011. The text explores the relationship between viewer and artwork through eight numbered sections. Heller contemplates the completeness of each artistic world, noting the terror and emptiness accompanying efforts to leave one for another. He describes how dark elements in compositions center the eye, while carefully depicted natural forms like branches and water invite contemplation. The poet references literary figures including William Wordsworth and T.S. Eliot while examining how artworks transform perception. Heller discusses boundaries in aesthetic experience, stating he can love a picture only if it doesn't love him back. The essay considers how bridges in Joseph's work represent mythologies of difficult contact, and how natural forms like thistles can suggest wrathful deities. Throughout, Heller examines the tension between cliché and astonishment in artistic representation.