Post on 04-Jan-2017
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FRIEDA HUGHES
ALTERNATIVE VALUES
POEMS & PAINTINGS
Frieda Hughes, Green Triangle, oil on canvas, 50 x 40cm/20 x 16 in, £5,000
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ALTERNATIVE VALUES is a collection of poems in eight sections, each headed by a
haiku, addressing love, life, death, and more.
The paintings are Frieda Hughes’s visual response to the emotional elements in her poems.
The accompanying book is about aspects of life – Frieda’s life – and her observations of it.
Poems and Images © Frieda Hughes
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LOVE, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
LOVE.
Love is not always about people
Nor do people always find love.
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WEDDING POEM FOR YOU.
This poem
Contains the first time I ever saw you
Standing, smiling, sitting, or just talking,
Looking into the eyes of other people as you spoke,
Or staring into the distance
As if you were searching for someone……
WEDDING POEM FOR YOU, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
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ONE LAST KISS, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
LOVE POEM FOR A MOTORBIKE, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
ONE LAST KISS.
You’d do anything for one last kiss, you say,
But why?
You had it, only
You didn’t know then, that it was not
To be followed by others………
LOVE POEM FOR A MOTORBIKE
I’d always hoped
I’d overcome the craving and forget
About two wheels and an engine.
During years in offices wearing pencil
skirts too tight
To allow the necessary over-seat leg-swing
I’d watch Moto Guzzis and Nortons go by,
Straighten the crease in my stockings
And step in heels from a car……..
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SIMPLE ARITHMETIC, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
ANOTHER WEDDING POEM FOR YOU, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
SIMPLE ARITHMETIC.
The basics should add up;
Food, water, clothing and shelter equal life.
Cash will increase the idea of success,
As will anything flash by way of car or a
house,
And a preternaturally youthful husband or
wife…
ANOTHER WEDDING POEM.
I’ve sat and worked at these words
Until they were tortured into this compla-
cency;
They have littered the desk like tatty knot-
ted threads
Snipped from the back of this poem
As if it were a piece of embroidery…….
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DISCIPLE, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 40 CM/20 X 16 IN, £5,000
LIFE, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
DISCIPLE.
She has chosen her God.
The practice of him is delivered
By the man whose mouth
Is the instrument
Of her instruction………
LIFE.
Life is the forging of the spirit
In the fire of experience….
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THE ROLLING CAR.
The crimson Morris Traveller loses footage
At the hilltop, my younger brother
Sticking like an obstinate dough-ball
To the back seat
On which we will die……….
THE ROLLING CAR, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
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CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
ALTERNATIVE VALUES, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £5,000
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN.
On 26th September 2009 Allen Jones exhib-
ited a collection of female figures at Lud-
low Castle in Shropshire.
Women have been here before –
Kept within these walls of stone
Where now the doors are gone.
Objectified by your intent I stand –
A perfect monument……….
ALTERNATIVE VALUES.
The owl does not always look ahead
With eyes on the horizontal……..
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EMBRYO, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,800
FOR EVADNE, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500, SOLD
EMBRYO.
It has no mind to define it.
It’s a little coded message
Loaded with a long list
Of things to do later…….
FOR EVADNE.
You’re fifty now, and fifty winning
smiles
Will greet your Saturday surprise.
I have agonised over each untravelled
mile
We cannot make to see you………….
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AFTER THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL, OIL ON CANVAS, 61 X 51 CM/24 X 20 IN, £4,800
THE LAST SUPPER, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £4,000
AFTER THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL.
I arrive in the green room dressed in motorbike
black
To see my father gazing into my mother’s eyes
From every coffee table………
THE LAST SUPPER.
My father is made poet laureate
And the boyfriend is eating lobster thermidor
At the supper to celebrate……..
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DEATH.
Three minutes without air,
Three days without water,
Three weeks without food.
DEATH, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
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FOR THE LIVING LEFT BEHIND, OIL ON CANVAS, 61 X 51 CM/24 X 20 IN, £4,800
NEW LANGUAGE, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 61 CM/20 X 24 IN, £4,800
FOR THE LIVING LEFT BEHIND No one dead who loved you
Would wish your future years dismembered
Against the rocks of their departure…….
NEW LANGUAGE.
The release form will turn flesh into ash
So my brother will fit into the small black
plastic box………..
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TRANSITION.
Transition is a movement of objects,
Or people, or emotions, through time
From one place to another,
From one state to another…..
TRANSITION, OIL ON CANVAS, 142 X 198 CM/56 X 78 IN, £30,000
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WIDOW, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
ASHES, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
WIDOW.
Each movement of his lungs
Had been her countdown to his termination:
Even in the years before hospital,
After the birth of her son,
After the purchase of a townhouse and the sale
Of an open-topped sports car………
ASHES.
He is boxed beside her in the bedroom
Where he’ll rest more obediently than in life;
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ABOUT LOSS, OIL ON CANVAS, 61 X 51 CM/24 X 20 IN, £4,800
AFTER THE FUNERAL, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 40 CM/20 X 16 IN, £5,000
ABOUT LOSS.
We borrow people, by blood or birth, marriage or
friendship,
But they are not ours to keep……..
AFTER THE FUNERAL.
………as one of four,
I carried your casket
Into the crowded church……..
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PLANNING AHEAD, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
WOLF, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
PLANNING AHEAD
What we become tomorrow
Is because of the choice we make today.
WOLF.
It lay quiet. So still, hardly breathed.
For years you thought it was dead.
Couldn’t see the blood pumping beneath red
fur,
Couldn’t feel the heartbeat…………
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MAN IN A CARE HOME BED, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
EGGS, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
MAN IN A CARE HOME BED.
….He is disparaging too, in his lack of
pleasantry,
Of the old man’s slackening grip on things
Like plates and spoons, the concept of infin-
ity,
Or anything with liquid in………
EGGS.
……I have a photograph:
My mother is laughing,
Holding me against the bulge
Of my unborn brother, kitten strangling
In my eager palms……….
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SHED VISION, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
SELFIE, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
SHED VISION. I want, the man said, a shed
At the bottom of the garden;
In it I would put a lathe,
A jig saw, a plane,
An electrical sander and all I need
To make another shed…….
SELFIE.
You want to fix yourself into that event
With an image of the volcano, or street
killing,
Or house fire, or fornicating bull-
frogs…….
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COMMITMENT, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £4,000
FACTS, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
COMMITMENT.
If you do this one thing
(Whatever it is)
It may pin you to an event,
Or a person; a religion or a political party…..
FACTS.
Your illumination of all the facts
Will damn you in politics
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THE IDEA OF PENNIES 2, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 40CM/20 X 16 IN, £4,000
WINNING POEM, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
THE IDEA OF PENNIES.
(A response to James Joyce’s Poems a Penny Each
to accompany six paintings.)
The painter thinks of the poet
In his book-stacked study, or bare beamed gar-
ret,
Or on a washed rock at the river’s edge,
Scribbling words to draw blood
Through the veins
Of a pale daughter who’s hands
Are as frail as white roses…….
WINNING POEM.
……If a poem be a distillation
Of image, idea and emotion,
With handles that give the mental fingers
Of a curious mind a grip on the truth
Of a cup, a plate, a sinking ship,
Or a faithless lover lying naked………
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THE GIFT, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £4,000
RECIPE FOR EXPLODING CAT, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £4,000
THE GIFT.
A bowl of crystal struck
With all the fissures of stone
Was a gift.
Hand-held by lamas
Its cup was carved to be
A skull-top, rocking;
It held a friend once……
RECIPE FOR EXPLODING CAT.
Everyone knows that it takes a toaster,
A cat, a sense of curiosity, and a slice of
bread……
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PLAYING GODS, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £3,500
MY FATHER’S STONE, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
PLAYING GODS.
Three boys are playing with stones in the dirt.
They decide to call them gods because gods
Are omnipotent; gods can do anything……
MY FATHER’S STONE.
My father’s memorial stone floats
Off into space like a balloon,
Unanchored by his children
Who are strangers to it……..
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BAREFOOT, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £4,000
FREE SPEECH, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
BAREFOOT.
The child I was walked barefoot
On the treacle of tarmac
In the village road………
FREE SPEECH.
You are not free to speak your mind
If your opinion does not comply
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THERSITES AS LODGER, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
DENIAL OF A LIE, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
THERSITES AS LODGER.
Hagged and squiffling he was joyous,
Wearing his responsibilities
To the likes of Achilles and Nestor
As adornments too numerous
Not to need a golden chain
From which to hang them……
DENIAL OF A LIE.
‘I did not lie’, he said, lying,
His many undertakings
Broken like slabs from God’s Mount,
Dropped by a change of mind
And a hand, clumsy of others…..
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DISSECTION, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
THE NUMBER, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 40 CM/20 X 16 IN, £4,000
DISSECTION.
She’s a clever woman, that one, she knit
Her words like poison charm, her wit,
Sharp like hypodermic………
THE NUMBER.
He could see her string
Was wearing thin. It held
Her two middle-aged ends together
To prevent her torso
Separating from her pins……
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BROTHER’S BIRTH, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
HANDS, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £4,000
BROTHER’S BIRTH.
Well, there he is; my brother,
Squawking and bald
And attention’s centre
As if he were a wheel-spoke.
I hope he grows hair………
HANDS.
There is elation,
Or joy,
Or death
In each finger,
Sometimes all three…….
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POTENTIAL, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
POET AS A TEENAGER, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, SOLD
POTENTIAL.
When born we are planted
But it is always
Up to us to flower.
POET AS A TEENAGER.
Years ago my landscape had fewer mountains
and cliff edges,
But more fleshy pitfalls………
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THE POET BEGINS, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 40 CM/20 X 16 IN, £4,000
THE POLITICIAN ENDS (ECHO), OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 51 CM, 16 X 20 IN, £4,000
THE POET BEGINS.
The poet begins; he inscribes
His first poet-thought
On important paper. He studies it
As if the words already
Breathe without him……..
THE POLITICIAN ENDS. His work embodies him and he is emboldened to find A woman who will cultivate it as she would roses……
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WOMAN AS WINDOW (REFLECTIONS), OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 61 CM/18 X 24 IN, £4,500
THOUGHT, OIL ON CANVAS, 102 X 76 CM/40 X 30 IN, £10,000
WOMAN AS WINDOW.
….I watch you glitter; your reflections
Dance back at you from the eyes of others
As you step into your new world…..
THOUGHT
Embryonic little spark
Finds its way through the maze
Of head-mass and channels
That could lead it astray……
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PURPLE TRIANGLES, OIL ON CANVAS, 51 X 40 CM/20 X 16 IN, £4,000
THE IDEA, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN £4,800
PURPLE TRIANGLES
There are scraps of poems heaped and left
Lying all over the house
That I have no memory of writing:
Scribbles of thoughts, some of which rhyme…..
THE IDEA.
……..I want you to say
‘I have no idea what that is’,
Then I can tell you all about
This new thing that is my idea…..
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RELATIVE VALUES, OIL ON CANVAS, 46 X 36 CM/18 X 14 IN, £4,500
MEMORY LOSS 1, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
RELATIVE VALUES.
Relatives know how to pull the root
That taps our most sensitive nerve.
MEMORY LOSS 1: Departure
During her visit to see
My six month old brother,
My grandmother
Digs a hole in my mother
Into which my father falls……
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MEMORY LOSS 2, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
MEMORY LOSS 3, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
MEMORY LOSS 2: Separation Unconscious on my feet was I aware
Of my father’s almost daily visits
As he came and went?........
MEMORY LOSS 3: Waking Nameless
On waking, my head
Did not hold any recollection
Of the last place I’d been
Before I opened my eyes……..
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MEMORY LOSS 4, OIL ON CANVAS, 40 X 30 CM/16 X 12 IN, £3,200
MOTHERS, OIL ON CANVAS, 122 X 92 CM/48 X 36 IN, £14,000
MEMORY LOSS 4: Nesting
……I built myself houses
With books on end across the floor
As walls for rooms
With halls, and gaps for doors……
MOTHERS
……..For years
I dragged that hole around with me
Like a piece of missing ground
For other women to fall into.
But if I saw a mother in them
They saw my mother in me…….
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FOR SHURA.
Have I denied you a father
As your mother
Denied me mine?.......
FOR SHURA, OIL ON CANVAS, 61 X 76 CM/24 X 30 IN, £5,500