The blueness is not sadness or regret,
nor the colour of a teardrop.
It is not a reflection, not the depth of her eye,
nothing like the blue of the sky.
The fan does not keep her cool,
but hides the imperfect smile,
the chipped tooth behind her lips
that snags on words she does not say.
Even the flowers on her veil have wilted,
drooping, like her eyelids, and not bridal.
Kim M. Russell, 19th May 2026
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
This week’s Tuesday Poetics at the dVerse Poets Pub is hosted by Melissa with an ekphrastic prompt featuring paintings by Marc Chagall, about whom she has shared some biographical background.
Our challenge is to choose one of the paintings and write a poem about it. An additional challenge is to use descriptors to describe the details in the artwork and tell our readers about what they are, by telling what they are not.
I chose Bride with a Fan.
writing in north norfolk 
How well you capture the mood of the portrait with the negatives, Kim! That fourth stanza is especially descriptive of her self-imposed reserve.
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Thank you, Dora!
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I really love what the blue isn’t … and blue is such a common color of Chagall… (I missed the goat though)
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Thank you, Björn . The goat?
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The goat is very common in many of his paintings
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Oh unhappy bride!
much love
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I was inspired by yours to give it a try, Kim. Yours is quite beautiful.
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