My poem “Imperfectly Purified” appears at Ekphrastic Writing Challenge Responses: Cristobal Rojas. It can be seen here, with other deserving reads. The painting “El Purgatorio,” by Cristobal Rojas is the inspiration for the challenge, and I am pleased that Kerfe Roig is among the poets with whom I share recognition.
My thanks go to Guest Editor Janette Schafer at The Ekphrastic Review, for including my poem.
Ken G.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons – El Purgatorio, by Cristobal Rojas
Lighthouse in the Desert
In a tale of discernment,
not desperation,
a heart lost on a barren plain
thirsts for love.
Dismissing pretenders,
with their bent ways
of drinking the light of others
to feed their own dark nature,
it seeks one that also seeks
a love that is both nurtured
and shared, finding that balance
in the one true lighthouse in the desert.
This poem was inspired by “Desert Horizons I,” a watercolor by Jason Hugger of Phoenix, Arizona. Jason says that discarded objects inspire his surrealistic desert landscape paintings. “The types of objects I select to use as reference for my paintings are usually heavily rusted and broken pieces of metal. Often I am not able to identify them and I find that intriguing. Reusing them gives them a second life and a beauty they may not have originally had as tools or other useful items.” (click image for larger view in new tab)
The prompt for NaPoWriMo.net for Day 22
is to write a poem that engages with another art form.
inside out
my past shapes
the path I follow
leading everywhere
nowhere
walking in circles
I face myself
directionless
This art is offered by Ronovanwrites at Guess That Art IV, for observation and inspiration.
Image source: Whitney Mueum of American Art – Iberic, © Carmen Herrera (acrylic on canvas board)
Safe Mode
Layered
Parceled
Expressions of a heart
a mind
a soul
Random
Disjointed
Until they coalesce
find their way to a page
a screen
No longer read only from memory
Yet not all see the light of day
Poetry
written in safe mode
Painting by Ron Schira ~ Safe Mode #36
Darkness Released
Jackson Pollock, untitled (1941)
Inner turmoil long restrained,
draining all strength,
seeks an outlet.
Understanding, born
of disaffection,
finds direction.
Vision, a product of light,
rises from darkness,
no longer contained.
Darkness,
even in the light,
is still darkness.
With Guess That Art III, Ronovan asks us to write a poem inspired by a painting, artist and title unnamed. Coincidentally, the night before the prompt, I finished reading the autobiography of Thomas Hart Benton, in which a late chapter (added in a later revision) discussed this artist, Jackson Pollock. It prompted me to look for examples of his work. I was surprised by this piece, untitled (1941), and a few others as they are not the sort of work I associated with him.
Image source: wikiart.org
Facing Darkness
One atrocity will replace another.
Each must be recorded,
not ignored,
to give us the strength
to face the next, most sure to come.
With Guess That Art II, Ronovan asks us to write a poem inspired by Guernica, which was painted by Pablo Picasso in response to Nazi Germany’s 1937 bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.
Image source: pablopicasso.org (click image for larger view in new tab)
Peripheral Divisions
The past is open to interpretation,
memories just shadows of the stories
we want to hear but are afraid
to tell. Like the black cat
on the edge of vision, holding
the truth to the darker side
of those shadows, the slide show
we play in our minds
is the truth behind our reason,
each frame with the potential
to be our downfall.
A recent prompt at The Ekphrastic Review featured a painting, Untitled (2011) by Omar Odeh, an Iraqi artist living in Canada, as an open challenge for ekphrastic poetry. I started a draft, the first two-thirds of this poem, then promptly forgot about it, until seeing the responses chosen for the final results. The writing process started with the thought of “memory,” as the shadowed half of the painting reminds me of elephants.
