no question these pinnacles are alive
that they have seasons like vegetation
and that the earth decays and revives
from this point in a new creation
the mountain breathes in our place - pours water
and gathers forest in Jeong Seon’s scenes -
raises reefs of granite in that quarter
which allow neither mist nor rain to screen
observers from the sight - how will this end ?
the life-cycle of rocks is harmonised
whenever the finished artist blends
with far from finished peaks:- wood’s carbonised
into soot and inks mixed with the silence
lift the detail far above subsidence
Blackwells
Oxford
23 March 2018
Jeong Seon (1676-1759) was a great and highly innovative Korean painter, who made famous studies of Mt Kumgang/ Mt Geumgang, also known as the Diamond Mountains, which can be found in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. His artist name or pen name was Kyomjae.