Tag: Poetry About Art

Paul Ilechko: “A Life in Art”

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A Life in Art

Starting with charcoal
catch the movement
sixty seconds to finish

the drawing       to capture
the gesture in the fewest possible
lines      so much is about

touch      move on to the camera
and now it’s about framing
it’s about depth of field

where so much depends on
the interaction of speed
and aperture      talk to me

about art and how it defines
our lives      we are windblown
through space and time

we are the green edges
that surround this city
the mailman on his rounds

the fish in the canal
where a man floated
slowly past      a long pole

in his hands      make a movie
from these elements
the story should tell itself.

About the Author: Paul Ilechko is a British American poet and occasional songwriter who lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in many journals, including The Bennington Review, The Night Heron Barks, deLuge, Stirring, and The Inflectionist Review. He has also published several chapbooks. 

Image Credit: August Macke Baum und Felder. 1911 Public domain image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Rose Mary Boehm: “On Reflection”

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On Reflection

How is it done? In coloured pencils with washes
and masks, blenders and frisket film.
And if I take your face and mask your eyes,
leave them white or fill them with ash, what then?
Where will you go when I pull off that frame,
how will you round out if I withhold
the shading, will water wash on wax
and will your skin fall off when I use
the eraser on that highlight I left in your hair?

The perfume on the tux you wore
when you were speaking before your peers
is getting old and brackish.
The wardrobe is full of past events
for which I do not take responsibility. When
you wanted your image back it had crumpled.

About the Author: Rose Mary Boehm is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru, and author of two novels as well as seven poetry collections. Her poetry has been published widely in mostly US poetry reviews (online and print). She was twice nominated for a ‘Pushcart’, once for ‘Best of Net’. Her latest: DO OCEANS HAVE UNDERWATER BORDERS? (Kelsay Books July 2022), WHISTLING IN THE DARK (Cyberwit July 2022), and SAUDADE (December 2022) are available on Amazon. A new MS, LIFE STUFF, has been scheduled by Kelsay Books for February 2023. https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/

Image Credit: Honoré Daumier “Head of a Man V” Public domain image courtesy of Artvee

Robin Wright: “Boarding House Bedroom”

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Boarding House Bedroom
- After Vincent van Gogh

I tell the widowed landlady,
I’m an artist, and she rents
me the room cheap.
The colors for this room
must be both bright
and tranquil for me
to feel alive, work
round the clock in a fever.

I choose yellow for the bed
and chairs. Violet for walls,
green for the window frame,
a fence encasing light
that leads to a view
of the public garden
where men and women
stroll the lane surrounded
by blue pines.

I immerse myself for days,
weeks, months, until
a voice, a train inside
my brain, rumbles
through, rattles
the pictures on the wall.

About the Author: Robin Wright lives in Southern Indiana. Her work has appeared in The Beatnik Cowboy, As it Ought to Be, Loch Raven Review, Spank the Carp, The New Verse News, Rat’s Ass Review, Little Old Lady Comedy, Bindweed, Fevers of the Mind, One Art, and others. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and her first chapbook, Ready or Not, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2020.

Image Credit: Vincent Van Gogh “Bedroom in Arles” (1888)