Wednesday, February 10, 2010

ekphrastic poetry

William Carlos Williams must have loved exploring Bruegel's art. He interpreted a number of the paintings in his poems. His ekphrastic poems inspired me to complete a poem based on a sketch of artist Jamie Wyeth's COMET.

SENTRIES
after COMET, a painting by Jamie Wyeth

Two sentries
stand rooted to Monhegan stone.
Do they take shifts watching?

Lens polished, one waits
for moonless nights. The other, eyes
shut, listens for turning tides.

The light flashes code.
Comet,
sea tosses up.

Time to
glut your gullet.
Open your eyes.

The sky darkens.
Clouds with purple tints
hint of weather.

Who will sound our alarm,
pry our eyes open
to behold the bruised sky?

What is worth sounding the alarm
in our century?
- Joyce Ray

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