I emerge, face first,
from vertical brushstrokes
daubed like a rainstorm
of bright colours.
You might think I’m dressed
as Harlequin, but you’re wrong –
I am arrayed,
dismayed,
fighting my way
through pulsating oiled emotions,
scented with linseed,
tickled with brushes,
waiting to open my eyes
on the finished portrait.
Maybe I will be finished.
Maybe I will recognise myself.
Kim M. Russell, 15th January 2026
It’s Thursday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, time for Open Link Night with Lillian. I love the optional ekphrastic prompt with a painting entitled ‘Mme Kupka among Verticals’, painted in 1910-11 by František Kupka.
writing in north norfolk 
LOVE what you’ve done with this painting! In some ways, we were thinking in the same plane. These lines I am most smitten with:
“I am arrayed,
dismayed,
fighting my way
through pulsating oiled emotions”
Hope to see you Saturday, Kim!
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Thanks very much, Lill. I won’t be around on Saturday. I’m still struggling with Mojo’s death – we picked up her ashes today – and I shall be spending the afternoon with a friend who also recently lost a cat.
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another brilliant couplet poem from you Kim – “daubed like a rainstorm” oh yes!!
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Thank you so much, Laura!
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I love what you saw in the painting… rhymes with what I saw as well…. it was an interesting painting…
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Thank you, Björn. I love this painting.
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Oh, that final couplet hits hard! I like how you interpreted to this painting, Kim. It does make one wonder!
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Thank you, Merril. I love this painting.
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You’re welcome, Kim.
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🙂
This: “tickled with brushes”
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Thanks Ken.
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This is absolutely exquisite, Kim! Wow! I am especially moved by; “I am arrayed, dismayed, fighting my way through pulsating oiled emotions.” ❤️❤️
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Thank you, dear Sanaa.
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I love how -like the painting- you bring her to life, Kim. Awesome Ekphrastics
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Thanks so much, Ron.
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Kim, I like how you put yourself in her and that she is physically within the painting. Also like her wondering at the end.
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Thank you, Lisa. I really like this painting. It has echoes of one of my favourite artists, Klimt.
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You’re welcome, Kim. I can see that, with the lines and her face lost in it.
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Love the voice and the sense of empowerment.
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Thank you, Mish.
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A rainstorm of bright colors. It was fun to read and see the picture after the poem.
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Thank you, Colleen.
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We never recognise ourselves. Love the flow of this work.
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Thanks very much!
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A beautiful take on the prompt, Kim.
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Thank you, Dwight.
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You are welcome, Kim.
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wow so powerful and beautiful especially from ‘I am arrayed,
dismayed’ and onwards
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Thank you, Marja!
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Sur-prise! Woe to early models of abstract expressionism! Squirts and jissoms, angles in nerply glossolalia. The last two lines read into and against each other like the muse who became a wife.
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Thanks Brendan!
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OMG
the rainstorm image is alluring
🎇much love
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Thank you, Gillena, and much love to you.
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“Maybe I will be finished.
Maybe I will recognise myself.”
I wonder if he could not bring himself to paint over his new wife, and what she thought about the process of her transformation, Kim – a thoughtful, thought provoking poem, Kim…
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Thanks Andrew.
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Beautifully written Kim, very powerful, I love the ending:
Maybe I will be finished.
Maybe I will recognise myself.
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Thank you, Ange.
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maybe, right! But I loved it for sure. Thanks
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“I am arrayed, dismayed, fighting my way” – I like this phrasing a lot 👏
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Thanks very much, Shaun!
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“waiting to open my eyes
on the finished portrait.
Maybe I will be finished.
Maybe I will recognise myself.”
Stunning!
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Thanks so much, Melissa!
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