How the Artist considered the Tulip
It seems strange,
She did not paint
The voluptuous velvet shell,
Nor did she trace
The fimbriated lines
Of delicate leaves
Weaving in suspended air.
Rather,
She dared to pierce
With her brush
Into the very center
Of the beautiful creature,
Where muddy loam
Mixed with sunlight laden rain
To sculpt a fiery heart
Thrusting a blinding
Flash of color back to the
Cold blue sky of
Failing winter, crying out
In desperate measure:
Here I am, Pick me!
Oh, here I am,
Pick me.
-Lona Gynt
November 2015
November 2015
∞…∞…∞…∞…∞
This picture is from the outstanding North Alabama Artist, Natasha Nashadka. This picture inspired my poem some years ago, and I have been wanting to share it with my dVerse friends. Visit Natasha’s site!!! Don’t prepare to be amazed, just link on over and be amazed, no preparation needed, it just happens! Here is the link to her site.
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This poem is posted for the dVerse Open Link Night being hosted by Grace. Join us for a trip through an open poetry trail, and post a link to one of yours while you can. 🙂
Here is the Link.
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All rights for text reserved to Lona Gynt. October 2018.
Amazing – you have captured the artistic process so well – asking the question of why we choose to paint /focus on what we do.
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Thank you, I think much of it is to connect with life and others.
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Love the perspective of the artist specially the center of the beautiful creature. Stunny photo as well.
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Thanks Grace, the picture is a photo of the original chalk pastel by Nashadka, when I first saw it I was really pulled into it.
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I get a sense of the artist morphing into that which she paints, kindred souls attracting one another. And all for what? Your flower here, calling to be picked is urgently wanting to serve, so selfless it’s ready to give its one and only bloom for the simple pleasure of its picker. What does the flower get? Is it attracted to the soft smile on a human face as we are to the blossom? I like where this is all going, thanks to your poem and to Natasha’s art. I like her site and how she’s enthusiastic about sharing her process. My favorite thing is that she’s most productive at drawing in church. Not because she’s not paying attention but au contraire! What a way to worship:)
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She is an amazing artist, and I agree any artistic reflection requires the artist to become the subject, in some sense to see the world from that viewpoint. Natasha is good at this. The flower “wants” at the most basic level to be noticed, to have some likely arthropod descend and Crawl all around in it’s messy heart and carry its gametes forward. What is brilliant about this picture is the way I felt like a bee, drawn in at a primal level, rather than a human observing it. The hidden beauties of up close and tiny reveals a vital life in the center, I felt like Sylvia Plath’s tulips were staring back, demanding attention. I feel her work often has that force of life making its quiet demands of the universe. I really like her painting “firework” for that same vitality.
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Poems are empathies, embracings of the world and its ten thousand things.. Artist to artist the embrace is deeply aesthetic, getting into the heart of another work, which is exactly what you do here. Such fine detail tracing the edges, leading to that leap into the gorgeous plush center which is floral and holy. Its how we find and savor and drown in the divine. Lovely, lingering poem.
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Find, savor, drown. You have given a description of three steps, holy and beautiful on the divine and art. And also a nice description of how her picture effected me. Thank you Brendan.
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Vibrancy and passion in her work and your words! Art should draw you in somehow.
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Yes, a drawing in and cross pollination in the joys and struggles and longings of this world. I sincerely appreciate it Kathy, thank you 🌹
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If nothing else, thank you for ‘fimbriated’ – a fantastic word given life here again. Such a clever piece of ekphrasis – I particularly liked the last image of the flower addressing the artist.
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Addressing… yes. Through art we can learn to translate the language of flowers. Thank you Peter.
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To pick and prod the center of it all, to be able to reflect upon and find that heart is the artistic endeavor we aspire for. It’s lovely how you delve into this theme through an ekphrastic verse — the picture depicts the poem as the poem depicts the picture. 🙂
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Yes, if we can find the center perhaps it wi hold after all. Thank you for your profound reading my friend.
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I like that crying out to be picked at the end.
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Thank you Frank, it is always good to see you
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Amazing insight into the artists focus and methodology. The imagery describing the artist’s view is beautiful.
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Thank you Dorianna.
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I love how you dig into the painter more than the painting… the process of diving deep into the subject is a process I really love… I loved the painting, but it also made me think of Georgia O’Keeffe… or maybe even some of the photos by Robert Mapplethorpe…
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Thanks Bjorn. Have been thinking about the threads on translating poetry, and I think ekphrastics has some symmetry there, translating from a visual to poetic language, although it is a translation of the poet’s subjective experience so it is different. You are right though, my focus started with what Nashadka was saying to me by her focus, but when I saw this picture I soon found myself pulled on by the magnified bright blanket of color and soon thought about what the flower was saying to the world. Georgia O’Keefe did indeed do that so beautifully.
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I love how you enter the mind of the artist (and flower) to describe the process. Wonderful poem and art!
And fimbriated is a great word!
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Thank you Merril, I am glad my dVerse friends have been able to see this. 🙂
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🙂
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Rather,
She dared to pierce
With her brush
Into the very center
Of the beautiful creature
Oh this is so very beautiful!! 😍😍
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Thank you Sunny. That is a very meaning complement for me, I am in awe of your poem this prompt, the title alone is an amazing poem “the day and all its sweet remembrances are gone” that had been softly strumming in my head all weekend
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Beautiful words for a stunning inspiration 🙂
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Thank you, so glad you came by 🙂
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