facing a challenge
a writer finds poetry
in cherry blossoms
This haiku is my response to Almost There – and an Early-Bird Prompt at Na/GloPoWriMo. We’re asked to write a poem inspired by art found online at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Blossoming Cherry Trees by a Stream
by Katsushika Hokusai.
The Purrfect Place to Nap
I’m curious. No. Furious.
Your lap is otherwise occupied,
tied down by papers waiting
to be shredded, the demise dreaded
by any who cross the path
of a cat filled with wrath.
This poem is inspired by a page from Claudia McGill’s
Small Wordless Sketchbook 2020.
The Light in Your Eye
Shadow?
An absence of color
that brings my world to life?
Or the light that seems
to emanate from your eye?
All of these in a fluke of lighting,
a software glitch transmitted
from your cell to mine.
Always with me.
This poem is my response to Poetics: Look into my Eyes, the prompt from Mish
at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, which is to “Incorporate the theme of eyes into a poem.
Write about the eyes of someone close to you, your own eyes
or those of a fictional character.”
The image, a photo sent to me by my wife in our early days,
is one of the wallpapers on my phone. (without the text, written today)
The Butterfly and the Branch
A branch sways
A butterfly changes course,
its wings the wind
A branch reflects on its situation,
draws a butterfly
A butterfly succumbs to obscurity
A branch sways in the wind
This poem is my response to Reena’s Exploration Challenge #154,
which offers the image for inspiration.
Image source: Gerd Altmann / Pixabay
Empty Landscape
What is parting
when neither wishes to leave?
Far from ignoring the distance
between us, we embrace a landscape
that becomes more barren
the greater that distance.
Once close, it seems we are meant to be
apart, even as we are together.
This poem was written as a response to an ekphrastic challenge at The Ekphrastic Review, but it didn’t make the cut. Even as I submitted it I knew it’s a poem that is still unfinished. Perhaps that’s a reflection of a scene that is, itself, unfinished. In the painting, “Figures in a Landscape,” by Bertram Brooker, I see the despair of having a need to part without the willingness to do so.
Responses to the challenge can be found here,
including two fine examples by Merril Smith and Kim Russel.
Image source: Art Canada Institute
I’ve decided to try to create a “haiga sort of image” for Mother Nature, a poem inspired by Catrin Welz-Stein’s Listen, which was posted yesterday as a response to the dVerse prompt Let the Words Be Your Paintbrush! from Lillian at dVerse ~ Poets Pub. I’ve attempted two different text formats with Catrin’s image
Mother Nature
Below, as above
the mother of all
that is interconnected
holds true in her vision
of what is right.
She cannot do otherwise.
It is in her nature.
The artwork of Catrin Welz-Stein can be found here.
Mother Nature
Below, as above
the mother of all
that is interconnected
holds true in her vision
of what is right.
She cannot do otherwise.
It is in her nature.
This poem is my response to Let the Words Be Your Paintbrush! The prompt, from Lillian at dVerse ~ Poets Pub, is to write a poem inspired by one of four images by Catrin Welz-Stein. This one is titled, Listen and is used with her permission. Her gallery can be found here.
The New Bucephalus
From both great heights
and the most common level,
many have fallen, and more
will follow. Decide for yourself.
Are you invincible in your little corner
of the world? There is no comfort
when all is in shadow and many
have succumbed to a tyrant
wearing a crown of death.
The Ekphrastic Review offered Edgar Ende’s The New Bucephalus in Ekphrastic Writing Challenge Prompt: Edgar Ende. While my submission did not meet the bar, there are some wonderful selections that were chosen, including those by Kerfe Roig, Merril Smith, and Kim Russel, and they can be read here.
One of the most famous horses of antiquity,
Bucephalus was the horse of Alexander the Great.
Image source: artnet.com
fragments of a tune
a body manifested
with each measured note
This senryū is inspired by Pablo Picasso’s
“Girl with a Mandolin” and is in response to
Reena’s Exploration Challenge #146: Cubism,
which asks us to explore cubism.
Image source: Wikipedia – Girl with a Mandolin, by Pablo Picasso
My poem, “If Only” is featured today with other selections for Ekphrastic Writing Responses: Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior. The inspiration for the challenge is the artist’s painting “Model’s Rest.”
My thanks go to Lorette C. Luzajic, Editor at The Ekphrastic Review, for including my poem.
Ken G.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons – Model’s Rest, by José Ferraz de Almeida Júnior
