Canvas

I’m “tending bar” today over at dVerse Poet’s Pub where the theme for the prompt is symbolism. I hope you’ll join us! My challenge to you is to share a symbolic poem of your own and leave a comment here, as well, letting me know what the painting and poem symbolizes to you. This is expressionistic art, which, by definition, seeks to express emotion or to elicit an emotional response. Thank you.

Credit: Image from Google, en.arthoffer.com-the Artist’s website and name was not available.

Canvas

A stretch of white.
You scrape a knife
through black, then indigo,
layer darkness,
across the horizon.
Reach for a tube of
chestnut brown,
squeeze the contents
onto the lower half
and smear.
Payne’s grey sky.
A slash of crimson,
a miniscule orb
in orange.

Broken Promises–Poetry Potluck

Image by trash it via Flickr

Broken Promises

The wedge is the most
common shape in nature,
the docent says,
pointing to a
block of color
erupting like a volcano,
painted by some obscure
abstract impressionist.

I think of mossy rocks
jutting from the thirsty river
just about a block from here.
Or the blue spruce outside
my window,
shelter from the cold
to quail and jays.

I think of promises not kept—
the way you turned and slammed
the door, the sliver
of light that bled across the floor
and fell on emptiness.

I think of verbs like
cram or stuff
or “force those thoughts,
those moments, those memories
from your consciousness.”

I beg for circles:
beginnings without ends
without having to start
all over again.

The prompt for this week’s Poetry Potluck is Void, Loneliness and Sorrow. Stop by http://jinglepoetry.blogspot.com  and read the work of seasoned and emerging poets who’ve responded to this challenge.