Spark 11 Submission - Sisyphean Tableaux

Sisyphean Tableaux

This piece was created for Spark 11, and is inspired by the poem below.

Still

Rockin'

Where are all the happy old men

the ones that younger men can see?

Laughing about the hard times of middle age

teaching how to handle the current chaos and strife.

What now of their search for adventure that excites the blood

their inner challenges that are still scarier than war?

The conflicts of self-bondage and their journeys towards freedom.

Would they share their secrets of what has driven them?

Could they speak to what dreams they still have,

and if they did, would it sound like this?

I've climbed to the mountain's peak

sat and stayed, took in the view.

There was peace but no fulfillment,

What more was there to do?

I have walked the valley deep

along the river bed of solace

imbibed the many fruited flowers

'till the trail circled back to the wine scented waterfall.

All of this, a folly, a mere destination of desire ,

a legacy of longing that simply separated me from myself.

Now I return to my work on the rock

not because I must but because I choose

to use my body & mind for the self sentenced effort

as an expression of an unfinished province.

My real life Sisyphean tableaux

proceeding, prying , pushing, prodding, bit by bit

this downward weighted earthen boulder

inching to the lake shore, ever closer, ever more.

Words By: Dale Leffler

02/15/2011