Ekphrastic Poems by Neil Ellman

 

Small Worlds VII

(Wassily Kandinsky, painting)

wassilykandinsky.net

 

My life in miniature

fragments of a world

in seconds, minutes, hours

and memories

strewn across a galaxy

so small it fits

inside the eye

and I am left disconnected

and alone

a separated soul

without a center point—

my world nevertheless

but less than ever it was

in a universe too large

to know my name.

 

 

Stars and Disasters

(Pierre Alechinsky, aquatint)

www.wikiart.org

 

In this haphazard universe

in this our lives   

filled with swirling galaxies,

matterless matter,

dreams and phantasies

as invisible as they are real

and the detritus of past

collisions and calamities

there are no accidents

no forever prophesies

no way around the certainty

that hope and imagination

cannot prevent.

 

 

 

The Complex of the Sphinx

(Pierre Alechinsky, painting)

quod.lib.umich.edu

 

Either lion or woman

or both

not of this time or any other

in timeless wonder

a riddle wrapped in stone

it stands alone

upon the desert sands.

 

                  II

 

What secrets does it know

of pharaohs and philosophers?

What writing has it read

in the hieroglyphs of wind

and cursive dunes?

What has it heard

In the silence of the sun?

 

                 III

 

It has travelled this way

In its provident crawl

to the edge of history

to serve the future

as its oracle and god.

 

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