Clouds at Sunset

(Speaking of clouds ... there's a mention of clouds in the latest installment of "Squiggles & Giggles" ... see the link below, to the left ... posted so recently that it's probably still warm)

But now, today's poem ... an ekphrastic poem, that is, one written about a painting ... one of my own creations.

It's one of the poems I shared with the audience recently in the "Poets Respond to Art" series at the Dayton Art Institute.

Sorry, I don't have a photo of the painting. I didn't get a shot of it before it went off to a new home in Illinois.

Still, I hope the poem will convey the images ... I keep trying to "paint pictures with words" ... that the poem will, at the very least, give the reader the feeling of being there in front of the painting, studying it.

The poem:

CLOUDS AT SUNSET

Mountains tower

on the left, clouds lie

piled like bubbles on the right,

while the sun

lowers itself into the sea,

and a white sail with

a horizontal red stripe

leans across the curving waves

in the foreground.

It's such an old painting,

it might have been the thirties,

awash in Depression, an art

seeking escape while accepting

the realities of that time,

or something as recent

as yesterday, made

to freeze-frame things

in the midst of change,

the clouds, the sun, the sea,

even those sturdy mountains,

eroding while we watch.

It could be just a dream.

© 2003

(From my first collection, Chance of Rain, Finishing Line Press, 2003).

***

Today's word: foreground

Afterthoughts ... in response to your comments:

Thank you so much, Featheredpines. I like description of my poems being like portals ... I'm still basking in that this morning ... one of the reasons that I'm running a bit late. Running? Don't worry, I'm not carrying scissors ... and I'm certainly staying away from stairways ... but if I find that I can't avoid them, I hold onto the handrail now.