Installation by Karen Underwood, ‘Broken Dreams’

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TREE OF DREAMS

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Fruit on the tree
Turns to ash
And spirals
Slow and graceful
on the morning air
settles on bent shoulders
the silver powder
of broken dreams

The hand flicks
the coat-sleeve
Plants another sapling
in the turf of faith
Wonder as it grows
Deny as it withers
Dismiss as it dies
Then move on easy

Damp roots preserved
Under the dust
Of memory
We fan the embers 
Of hope long gone
For a moment
Cold smoke
Chokes the lungs

A thousand 
shades of grey
Dance in the air
Carpet the ground
Strange beauty
At the end of dreams
Says we managed to hope
All this, for a while

And when our spirits 
Ride the ash 
of earthly dreams
To heaven
Hope will not be found
Among the trash 
We’re asked to leave 
Outside the door

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ICON

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Form
Under the patina
Ochre and brown
Varnished and cracked
Of our worldwise traditions

Sketch
Under the graph-paper
Ruled and boxed
Checks and balances
Of our great expectations

Shape
Under the slogans
Barbed-wire boundaries
Blood and piss
Of human existence

Show me your face
And I might see mine

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TRACE (fr)

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Creusant un sillon à travers le temps
Tu navigues entre les piliers
De ma fôret sombre 
Les agences avec douceur 
Pour laisser place
Aux filets de lumière

Tu voyages sur nos avenues sans fin
Regorgeant d’entrepôts, de débarras 
Ouvres les lucarnes
Déplaces les meubles
Déblayes le chemin de nos rêves

Tu marches parmi les lampes
Et les temples
Ecartant les murs, renversant les tables
Labourant le sol
Pour remuer la terre sous nos pieds

Souvent tes voies se trouvent
Au prochain tournant de l’univers
Ton ombre, impossible à saisir
Circule avec sa grâce perpetuelle
Transforme les contours de mon paysage
Et m’attend au virage 
Lorsque j’avance à reculons

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TRACE (eng)

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Carving a trace through time
You weave between the pillars
Of my dark forest, moving them gently
to make space for shafts of light

You travel through our endless
Avenues of box-rooms
Open skylights
Move furniture
Clearing a path for dreams

You walk among the lampstands
And the temples
Pushing out walls, turning tables
Treading floors
Displacing ground beneath the feet

Often your ways are found
Round the next corner of the universe
I could never catch your shadow
Moving with perpetual grace 
Shifting the features of my landscape 
Without your patient waiting 
As I drag my feet and try to walk