Poetry Challenge - Day 6

Today is the first Tuesday of April, which means it is also the first "Two for Tuesday" prompt of the month. Poets can choose to write one of the prompts, or they can write both. Personally, I usually just choose one.

For this prompt, write an ekphrastic poem. According to John Drury's The Poetry Dictionary, ekphrastic poetry is "Poetry that imitates, describes, critiques, dramatizes, reflects upon, or otherwise responds to a work of nonliterary art, especially the visual." So, I've provided links to two pieces of art, and I want you to pick one (or both) to write an ekphrastic poem. (It would be helpful for you to mention which art you picked.)

1. Pocahontas, by Annie Leibovitz
2. Flight of the Witches, by Francisco de Goya

I'll try to write twice about the last one; once without reading up on it at all. One after. ... time permitting. I love it! Love Goya! Here it is:























Who is there

Darkest night
Terrible
This is when it happens

I clutch my head and cry into the dirt
Oh horrible sound - happening.
Horrible truth - happening. Not him -What have I done?
Not done?
Horrible night!
I am face down in the dirt and can smell it.
I have never felt more alive.

No more than a dumb beast, I witness
He there, She there, He there, Them.
Them rising.
That sound.
I don't understand
I will hold still until I am seen and needed.
I am not moving.
I am not going anywhere.
I am not going to move or be seen.
I have never, until now, held this still.

My shawl is just over me, for no reason, now.
I hold it gently.
I won't see. There is much to do.
There is no reason to look up. No reason to look back or
remember. I don't know what is happening.
Nothing is happening.
I have never known until now how much there is that I must do.




••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
and commentary: the struggle between the neatly ordered reality proposed by science and the fantasy-filled hallucinations of the imagination severely destabilized 18th century individuals. We can sense this struggle in Flight of the Witches. Being an educated man himself, Goya believed firmly in the illuminating power of rationality that the Enlightenment brought to a Europe darkened by superstition. At the same time, we sense his deep attraction to this sinister side of the imagination. The painter explores the dark caves of the mind that resist being enlightened and which constantly threaten our psychological balance.


not too thrilling. could write about it.
going skating instead.