I’ve only done it once before—no twice—this thing called ekphrasis—writing visual art. The first time I was inspired by Chardin’s 18th century painting titled “The Attentive Nurse.” A long ago memory floated to the surface when I happened upon it in a coffee table book. I decided to go to the National Gallery to see it in person. The canvas was much smaller than I’d expected but still captivating. The poem I wrote in response hinged on the boiled egg the nurse in the portrait had prepared for her (unseen) patient and a memorable incident in my own professional life involving an implacable patient and what he considered an over-cooked egg on his breakfast tray.
The second time, years later, a vivid abstract by a friend titled “Still Life Illusion” triggered the realization that, as I say in the poem that followed
My landscapes are always peopled.
Clouds, rocks, trees—all have faces.
And not just landscapes—
houses, cars,
doodles, coffee stains,
abstract paintings,
all become, for me
an Ellis Island of the mind…
This time the challenge to write an ekphrastic poem comes from outside. Marissa Long, the gallery curator at Art Enables with whom I collaborated on my collection Heresies to Live By, asked if I would write a poem inspired by the work of one of its resident artists for a fall event featuring poetry. I eventually focused on two artists whose paintings drew me in. Both Dennis and Gary are disabled, largely nonverbal—and gifted.
Dennis’s piece features a field of sunflowers under a blue sky studded with cryptic letters or marks—a hidden message perhaps. Gary’s is abstract—a collage with thick black coils, 20 or more of them, in what looks like a dark autumnal seedbed. If the imagination were a place, is this what it would look like? Hmm. Have I stumbled upon the first line for Gary’s poem?
While I’m not usually drawn to writing visual art, I do like the melding of forms and the discovery of insights that each offers the other. Right now I’m interested to find out what’s there among Dennis’s sunflowers and what’s happening in Gary’s seedbed.