This is a reprint from the PE e-letter sent out earlier this week. I’ve added pictures of the art work as well as the well-known ekphrastic poem by Ranier Maria Rilke, Archaic Torso of Apollo. 

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A few weeks ago I wrote an ekphrastic poem inspired by the painting The Little Yellow Horses by Franz Marc. I only became aware of this genre of poetry in the last few months when one of the poets in my weekly group shared one she had written with Georgia O’Keefe’s Horse’s Skull with Pink Roses as her inspiration. According to Wikipedia the definition of ekphrasis (alternate spelling, ecphrasis) is the following: a rhetorical device in which one art tries to relate to another art by defining and describing the essence and form of that original art, and in doing so, "speak to you" through its illuminative liveliness. To me, what they’re saying and how I experience it, is that one artist is having a dialogue with another artist, with their respective crafts as the medium.

I was attracted to the painting, The Little Yellow Horses, not only for the beauty and serenity of it as a work of art, but how there was this resonance with the subject matter, how the horses at once were so still, so content, but, as is the nature of horses, they could fight or flee instantly, if so provoked and that the fiery energy, the amazing grace and power of these animals is awe inspiring to me. I also know that when the horses felt safe again they would settle down, graze, lay down in the grass, swish flies and embody the docile side of the horse. I felt a kinship with this desire to be at peace as well as be passionate in life; to live simply in harmony with the earth and heavens, and also bare my teeth, strike out, or outrun anything or anybody that threatens that tranquility. On a larger scale I see this dichotomy between the desire for peace in the world and how as individuals or communities or whole nations, we can become spooked into rising up, often times without fully comprehending the nature of the threat. All of these thoughts and feelings played into the poem, some of which, (to tell you the truth) I didn’t even realize until I wrote it down this minute.

I highly recommend the book, Transforming Vision: Writers on Art. Edited by Edward Hirsch and featuring artwork from the Art Institute of Chicago.
 

(My poem originally appeared here, but has been removed. Many journals will not publish a poem that has been previously published anywhere, including a personal blog. Hopefully you’ll see The Little Yellow Horses printed elsewhere soon.)

Archaic Torso of Apollo

We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,

gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.

Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur:

would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.

Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Stephen Mitchell