View from the Window at Le Gras, c. 1826

Escher sketch
in binary light and shadow

Sun writing
lavender oil and petroleum
on a pewter plate

The first ‘decisive moment’
lasted eight hours

It transpired in 1826
or 1827 —
an odd uncertainty
for a medium
rooted in recording
precise fractions of time

A wash house, a pigeon house
a bake house roof
and an orchard pear tree

The work room window
frames the modest View

Niépce’s original
is eclipsed by Daguerre

For nearly fifty years
it slips into obscurity.