Gertrude Abercrombie’s, “Where or When (Things Past)” (1948), oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches. Image courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Art and Colby Museum of Art, shared with permission
Note to Myself
A small, tall door left,
in space where
horizon cuts off
at legless knees.
Reflexes subdued,
tethered to
lobotomizing deaf.
Paralyzed marionette,
holding strings,
manifest myself rearing up
between bleached bones
and clang of madness,
a fanciful pale beast.
There’s nothing
on my arrested table.
Tangerine sheathes me
in fixed dilemma:
through which framed exit
will I crawl or leap, a
Cincinnati baby head
on a pre-stretched neck?
One of my blogmates’ blogs is called Cincinnati Babyhead, and his avatar is one that has seared into my synapses. While studying this artwork, his avatar came into my head.
Grace is today’s host for dVerse’ Open Link Night. Grace has given us a mini-prompt, to write an ekphrastic poem to the top image or to use the title of it to inspire a poem. There is also the choice to link up one poem you’ve written in Mr. Linky. I chose to write an ekphrastic to the image, which I found enriching to study.
Tao Talk 
I love how you almost saw the image as the center of a labyrinth…. maybe the yarn leads you right.
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Bjorn I like what you see in the poem. May be.
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A unique ekphrastic poem, Lisa. I love the weirdness of these lines:
‘Paralyzed marionette,
holding strings,
manifest myself rearing up
between bleached bones
and clang of madness’
And thank you for the wonderful blast of Joni. You cheered me up!
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Thank you, Kim. I tried to channel the artist in it. Would love to be able to ask her if I was close at all.
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You’re welcome, Lisa. Yes, it would be interesting to find out what she was thinking when she painted the picture.
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Wonderful Lisa :-) <3
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Thanks, Carol Anne!
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Dancing with eyes closed to here but opened wide to the painted real. Love the Joni Mitchell cut, great album.
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<3
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I love the marionette imagery and the tangerine sheathes with so many choices of your ending lines. Love the interpretation of the painting capturing the dilemma when confronted with an exit door.
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Grace, thank you so much.
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Fascinating poem…now i’m contemplating Cincinnati baby heads and arrested tables, Lisa!
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Lynn, thanks!
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It’s a painting well worth studying. You have captured it’s unsettled feeling. And great song to accompany it. (K)
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Thanks, Kerfe. I thank Grace for giving me an opportunity to study it.
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Yes it’s a good prompt.
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hah well that was unique and a bit creepy with the marionette but, I can see her as one.
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Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I see her as her own marionette.
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Only someone with your creativity could make that work. You have put a big smile on my face you.
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Now I’m the one to feel humbled. Happy to put a big smile on your face.
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A wonderful, weird, intriguing ekphrastic poem, dear Lisa. I love it and it really is a bizarre painting, isn’t it?
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Dear Dale, much appreciated. When I see one like this I know it has to be full of symbolism for the artist. All of the objects in it feel disjointed, which is bizarre, even though she has strings that attach them.
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It has to be. And they are yet those strings… kind of like life, though. We have pieces that don’t really go together but they are all ours.
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Great interpretation, Dale. Strings literally and figuratively attached. Hope you are enjoying your Friday.
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I love that! It’s so far, so good. Finally not too cold to take a walk. Which I’m about to do. The last few days have been absolutely brutal!
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Dale, face it, it’s *never* too cold for you to take a walk ;)
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Let us just say that, while that may be true, sometimes I do choose to NOT go out there ;-) Yesterday was a humid, bitter cold that went straight to the bones. I stayed in my house, by my fire, thank you very much!
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:) <3
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💞
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Now that is nothing short of a miracle…whenever you can fit in Cincinnati Babyhead into something and make it work!
I like that painting as well and the Joni Mitchell song is really cool…love the vibe of it.
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Max, the way it popped into my head was interesting, almost like it was waiting for a chance to shine in a poem. After what CB said, I really want to hear about its genesis.
That Joni song is one I’m not familiar with, but I went down her songlist and the lyrics seem to fit the vibe.
Thanks, Max
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That was some cool inspiration…The Joni song I didn’t know either but it sounded familiar…maybe because of the time period.
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Max, I think so much of her music is infused with jazz flavor that makes it sound familiar. I remember the group she had with her for Miles of Aisles and maybe other albums also?
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Was that the band made of jazz players? She was one of the first to do that for pop. I don’t know her career well.
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wikipedia is my friend :)
The L.A. Express was an American jazz fusion ensemble. Members of L.A. Express played on several Joni Mitchell albums, namely Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and the live album Miles of Aisles between 1974 and 1975.[1][2]
The band also had two jazz instrumental albums on their own – L.A. Express (1976), and Shadow Play (1976). The latter featured backing vocals and cover art by Mitchell. Both albums were recorded at James Guercio’s Caribou Ranch studio and were the first albums released on the Caribou label.
The L.A. Express formed in 1973 as the backing band for jazz saxophonist Tom Scott.[2]
The original lineup included bassist Max Bennett, drummer John Guerin, guitarist Larry Carlton, and keyboardist Joe Sample (the latter two were also members of the group The Crusaders). They recorded the album Tom Scott and The L.A. Express, as well as a number of tracks on Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark album in 1974 with this lineup, before both Carlton and Sample left the group.[2] Robben Ford replaced Carlton as guitarist and Larry Nash took over as the group’s keyboardist.
The group also performed the score to the 1974 adult animated comedy film The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat.
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Oh cool…Tom Scott I just read about…he is the guy that did the sax solo in Listen To What The Man Said on one take after hearing the song.
They were a talented bunch! Van Morrison used a jazz drummer named Connie Kay that added something different.
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Truly fascinating, Li! The painting does have an unsettling feeling.
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Punam, I imagine if this was a literal scene I walked into, I’d be freaking, like what’s going on here. It’s startling imagery for sure.
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I agree, Li. I would be freaking out too.
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“There’s nothing
on my arrested table.”
this stood out for me and sent be back to the art piece.
intriguing poem, Lisa
Thanks for dropping by my blog
much♡love
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Thanks much, Gillena. I looked at that table and also imagined it was a moon that connected the room to the painting on the wall. It’s such a compelling work of art.
You are welcome, my friend.
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This is a very interesting take Li
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Sadje, when I composed it, I did it like a detective, making a list of what I saw. Typing it out, the rest filled itself in. Thank you.
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A great way to respond to a prompt
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Hi Lisa, a fascinating interpretation of the picture prompt. It is so interesting to see how other poets interpret the same picture prompt.
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Yes, it is. Like I mentioned to someone else, I’d love to be able to talk with the artist to hear what she had in mind when she painted it. Adding her to my TMBL (time machine bucket list.)
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Yes, I saw that comment and your response.
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I like the
“bleached bones
and clang of madness,
a fanciful pale beast.”
all quite surreal.
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Thanks for reading and your comment. Much appreciated.
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Wonderfully weird, or weirdly wonderful! 😁
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:) <3
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Such an interesting response to the fascinating and strange painting. You’ve captured the disjointed, surreal feel of it.
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Merril, thank you very much.
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Seriously disturbing, in the way that good poems get under your skin.
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Kim thank you. I think the artist was getting something out of her system with the painting. Hope she successfully purged it.
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I like your interpretation !!!
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Thank you. I wish I could talk with the artist about the painting.
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Yes, just to know a bit more about what the artist was saying.
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Really powerful, unsettling, v well done.
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Thank you, Someone.
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Wild and intense, Li. I loved “Tangerine sheathes me
in fixed dilemma”: can’t think of a more perfect description.
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Dora, high praise. Thank you very much.
I will try to write to your prompt later tonight or tomorrow.
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❤️🤗
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