For all they said,
    I could not see the waterfall
        until I came and saw the water falling,
           its lace legs and its womanly arms sheeting down,

while something howled like thunder,
   over the rocks,
      all day and all night –
          unspooling

like ribbons made of snow,
   or god’s white hair.
      At any distance
          it fell without a break or seam, and slowly, a simple

preponderance –
   a fall of flowers – and truly it seemed
      surprised by the unexpected kindness of the air and
          light-hearted to be

flying at last.
   Gravity is a fact everybody
      knows about.
         It is always underfoot,

like a summons,
   gravel-backed and mossy,
      in every beetled basin –
         and imagination –

that striver,
    that third eye –
        can do a lot but
           hardly everything. The white, scrolled

wings of the tumbling water
   I never could have
       imagined. And maybe there will be,
           after all,

some slack and perfectly balanced
   blind and rough peace, finally,
       in the deep and green and utterly motionless pools after all that
          falling?

Artwork
Nojoqui Falls
86 x 40 x 38 inches; Stainless steel base: 1.5 x 22 x 32.5 inches
Steel, aluminum mesh, aqua resin, fiber glass cloth, and paint
Jacci Den Hartog @jaccidenhartog

Poem
The Waterfall
Mary Oliver

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Artists and Poems: Los Angeles 2020

Presented with Durden and Ray

Exhibition Team
Steven Wolkoff
Alexandra Wiesenfeld
Jenny Hager

Artists
Eugene Ahn, Lisa Anne Auerbach, Carlos Beltran Arechiga, Arezoo Bharthania, Jorin Bossen, Debra Broz, Nancy Buchanan, Gavin Bunner, Ismael de Anda III, Jacci Den Hartog, Yasmine Diaz, Tomory Dodge, Tom Dunn, Roni Feldman, Yrneh Gabon, Bia Gayotto, Mark Steven Greenfield, Kio Griffith, Gronk, Jenny Hager, Katie Herzog, Geraldine Hudson, Phung Huynh, Carmine Iannaccone, Bryan Ida, Ichiro Irie, Ben Jackel, Monica Juarez, Alexander Kroll, David Leapman, Constance Mallinson, Dakota Noot, Sean Noyce, Claudia Parducci, Lara Porzak, Rebecca Ripple, Gabby Rosenberg, Christopher Russell, Liza Ryan, Roland Seto, Theodore Svenningsen, Holly Tempo, Doug Wichert, Alexandra Wiesenfeld, Steven Wolkoff, Torie Zalben

About Artists and Poems: Los Angeles 2020