Each ekphrastic poem is based on a work of modern abstract art; and in each case, the title of the poem is also the title of the original image. For copyright considerations, the images have not been included here however they can be easily searched on the Internet.
Mirror at Midnight II
(After the painting by William Baziotes)
In the mirror
seen
the semblance of a soul
I cringe at the images
dark awakening
dark defeat
dark reflections
I my semblance
I the night
I another
what face lurks
in the glass
not my own—
it is midnight
I own the night
and it owns me.
Modest George Inesco
(After the shaped painting by Kenneth Noland)
Six sides to every question
unequal
no truth
in equilaterals
the distance between
here and there
disproportionate
now and then
today tomorrow
between
justice & the law
truth in the shape of a hexagram
six-legged vertices
beehive honeycomb
is where the devil hides.
Onement III
(After the Painting by Barnett Newman)
out
of
place
out
of
space
out
of
breadth
out
of
breath
the
depth
of
why
the
length
of
if
no
past
future
tense
none
only
on
out
of
time
Author’s Bio: Neil
Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey (USA). His poems, many of them ekphrastic
and based on works of modern and contemporary art, appear in numerous print and
online journals in a dozen nations, including a previous appearance in Contemporary
Literary Review India.
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