Art of Poetry’s Kelly DeMaegd shares her work inspired by artist Pat Viles on December 3, 2016 at Hickory Museum of Art. Photo courtesy of Roger and Ginny Sanford.

Kelly DeMaegd
ORIGINS
after “Back Road to Taos” by Pat Viles

I want to travel
the backroad into Taos,
want to experience
what’s real. Appreciate
expanses of ultramarine,
green needles of pinon,
stacked adobe dwellings,
roods erected against
raw umber walls.

I want to examine
history, understand
that artist’s paints
were once stored
in pig bladders,
that the eyebrows
on King Tut’s funeral mask
are the same color as sky,
that the cochineal beetles
found on prickly pear cacti
are gathered and dried
to make a potent red dye.

That the Spanish explorers
came for gold, glory, God,
failed to find gold or glory,
refused to give food
and protection until
the Indians professed
faith in Christ.
That the missionaries smashed
Pueblo artifacts, destroyed kivas,
planted their mighty crosses
painted with ancient black
pigment made by burning bones
of smaller animals.