9.17.2006
On the way out of the conservatory is Musick’s Story Bush. The artist wrote a 255-line narrative poem onto the leaves of a star-magnolia bush using a water-based paint pen. Musick says he’s concerned with “the poetics of unseen acts,” that is, doing small, beautiful things that are hardly noticed.
The poem started as a piece of prose. “I’m not terribly well versed in poetry but I am a much bigger fan of music and the way lyrics float,” he says. Musick called the Poetry Center for advice and it put him in touch with poet Dan Beachy-Quick. “He read through very generously and started striking lines out.” Musick rewrote the resulting poem in segments on the leaves. But that’s just the first phase. As the leaves begin to fall, Musick will gather them daily and create a new poem determined by the change of season. “I’ll probably check on it beginning the 20th of September,” he says.
