He is famous for the light, but look at her.The way she has arranged herself to bealone on purpose, in the yellow oblongthe morning lays across the empty floor.
We are taught to read her as a loneliness.The tour groups murmur it — so sad, so still.But I have sat exactly where she sits,in exactly that reclaimed and guarded light,
and I can tell you what the painter knewand would not say, because a title can't:that this is not the picture of a lack.This is a woman no one is about
to need. This is the one hour of her daythat belongs to no one's mouth or hands or clock.He caught her in the instant before the worldremembers where she lives. Look how she keeps it.
About the ekphrasticA poem written in response to another work of art, such as a painting.
An ekphrastic poem looks at a work of art and answers it. That might be a painting, a photograph or a sculpture. It can describe what is there, speak to it, or wander off into what it stirs.
Listen for Whether the poem describes the artwork, speaks to it, or drifts toward something it stirred.
4 poems in this form →@kai
Keeps a list of small mercies. Adds to it daily.
9 poems · 5 readings received · 11 written · 3 followers
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