Tumblewords

Fractals Photos Poetry Prose Watercolor

Friday, January 28, 2011

Abiqui for Big Tent Poetry

Big Tent Poetry offers this prompt: View a portrait which you didn't take and write a poem based on the pov of the actual photographer.


Abiqui

prickly as a pear
she entices softness
from bedrock and blood
distancing city glitter
so firmly glued to fame

a never-tumbled mien
eyes gritty as old bones
skin rough and ready
but the bristle hair paints
a different scene

she proffers a cool stare
waits for the shutter click
I dream of a macro capture
with her center showing
close as stamen and pistil



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_O%27Keeffe

Watercolor header and post image.
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21 comments:

Dave King said...

Oh, I dig this! t works on several levels - and the ambiguity makes it that much more intriguing.

RJ Clarken said...

I felt like your subject could have been a woman or a Georgia O'Keefe painting. Or both. Well done!

Anonymous said...

Prickly picture, prickly poem: appropriate and clever.

flaubert said...

Susan, this is gorgeous. I love the tall cacti in Mexico. I agree this
could have been a woman or a man while reading it. And the prickly pear is one of my favourite fruits.
Pamela

Anonymous said...

I knew it was O'Keefe right away. Nice.

mark said...

My ignorance of O'Keefe notwithstanding...I loved this poem. There is an androgynous feel to this...

Robin said...

Beautiful, Sue. And, yes, the ambiguity. Love it.

Anonymous said...

This is so clever, T-w. I'm in the desert now and have a new way of of looking at cacti. Your watercolors sing.

Elizabeth said...

When I first saw the prompt I went to the flicker photo site recommended by Big Tent. One photo really caught my eye and it kept coming to mind as I read this. Wonderful piece of writing,

Elizabeth

Friko said...

excellent; I like then ending, the macro capture showing the center, ie the soul, prickly or not.

Anonymous said...

Ooooh! I like this. I think "she" is so bold and beautiful!

Q said...

You never cease to amaze me!
Good one!
Sherry

Laurie Kolp said...

I love your word choice...
"she proffers a cool stare"- sassy!

~laurie

Mad Kane said...

Clever and beautifully done!

barbara said...

There is a Steiglitz portrait of a younger O'Keefe, shoulder and arms, that is as sculptural as a cactus.

James said...

"softness from bedrock and blood" is such a lovely line, and a great description of O'Keefe's work too. I like how you relate her work to the portrait of her, especially the description of the eyes.

Joyce Ellen Davis said...

It does sound like Georgia O'Keefe! What a great painting, and words to match!

gautami tripathy said...

Wonderful!!

singular thoughts

Brenda Clews said...

A portrait of the painter who is painting the painting but is also part of the essence of the prickly, gritty desert scene where the cacti grow. That deft 'as' in the first line turned the whole poem into one of contemplation on the artist. At the end, it is her photograph being taken. I am in awe at how you have captured so many levels of persepective, the paintings, the landscape, the artist, the photograph and mostly the character, the artist, her strength, in one poem.

Beautiful.

Deb said...

Brilliant portrait by you. Layers & layers of meaning. One of my favorite artists. I love your last line.

Joseph Harker said...

Awesome tribute... I don't know much about Georgia herself (though I do admire her work), and I like the idea of swiveling the camera (or what have you) around to the artist.