Twenty First Century Tundra

Bleached
whale bones
radiate sizzling
silence among slow
dissolution and frozen
indifference of icebergs.

Vague swimming shadows
in depths and shallows
of ultramarine blue
shun sulphur sun
and melting  
beach.

Kim M. Russell, 2017

Tundra

Elaine Jones ‘3 Tundra’ image found on Pinterest

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meet the Bar with Impressionism

Today Björn is hosting and continuing with the journey through the world of art.  He wants us to look deeper into impressionism, with its light brushstrokes and blurred edges – hinting rather than being exact.

Björn tells us that Impressionism has always been seen as a French movement with artists like Monet, Renoir and Cezanne. He says that, at first, their ideas were thought to be too radical but he thinks that impressionism has become the essence of good art.  He has reminded us of their techniques:

  • They use short, thick strokes of paint quickly to capture the essence of the subject, rather than its details.
  • Colours are applied side-by-side with as little mixing as possible in opaque fields, producing contrasts of vivid colours.
  • Wet paint is painted on top of wet paint, blurring the edges.
  • Greys and dark tones are produced by mixing complementary colours. They avoid the use of black paint. Impressionists always start from a light background.
  • Wet paint is placed into wet paint without waiting for successive applications to dry, producing softer edges and intermingling of colour.
  • The play of natural light is emphasized, with special attention to reflection. The preferred light is that of dawn or twilight.
  • They prefer open air painting.

Our challenge is to capture these ideas in poetry. What would a short thick stroke or a bright colour correspond to in words?  Björn suggests writing in separate pieces that capture moments or images, which should be from nature, such as clear nocturnal skies, and add some people, maybe food, and thus create a scene, avoiding darkness and including some laughter, He also says to paint them nor only by the names of the colours but even more with objects that have particular shades or hues.

51 thoughts on “Twenty First Century Tundra”

  4. An excellent poem–very much in line with the prompt, & would make a perfect gallery tag for your image. I do love me some alliteration.

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  21. Impressionism as you stroke allows a fleeting surface eye which sees our random and tandem failings writ large in the world. Maybe the immensity of some condemnation and grief can only be seen that way. The bolded second stanza offers an offshore diving critique. Happy see you diving back into your vault of treasures to bring poems like this to light anew! – Brendan

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    1. Thanks Brendan. Looking at the archives is a good exercise – I’ve forgotten a lot of the poems from past years and a pleasure to find something to share or work on.

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