Her life is mirrored in the bird:grey with a touch of crimsonin the parrot’s crest and feather tips,and her unsmiling lips. Red’s lucky for some,but she is a captive,tamed and longing to flybeyond blue curtains to sky and leaves, green as the bowl,from which she sips her tea,and green as her envyof the parrot’s wings. […]
Tag: Ekphrastic poems
Self Portrait with Clouds
I’d heard the voice but never seen its owner,loved the songs but never seen her face,but then I found her self-portrait on a coverwith the words; inside the music and her voice. It was the first time I’d ever seen a portraitor even a painting on a record sleeve;now there was a blonde woman’s blue-eyed […]
In a Hotel Lobby
She waits, her legs tucked in demurely,an open book in her hands,but she doesn’t see the words; one eyeis on reception, its counterpolished and bee-wax-scented. Surelyhe isn’t late? The couple on the otherside of the late-night hotel lobbylook married; he stands,coat draped over arm while his seated wifetries to catch his eye. And then the […]
Through Your Eyes
The beams of sunlight are palpableas they burst through the forest canopy,and I feel I am almost ableto feel the magic, Nature’s alchemy –through your eyes. With each step,you lead me by the hand into your world,a place of wonder where we stopto gaze at silver cobwebs and the curlof a russet leaf, or listen […]
The Perfume of Peonies
She raises the pink peonies, cool,damp leaves and petals a balmto her industrious fingers. Those dual-headed, blowsy globes grasped in her palmexude a fruity wisp of sweetnessthat makes her life much easier to bear.No customers notice the neatnessof her blouse, the pretty headscarf that she wearsto cover the cuts and bruises of her husband’s violence.She […]
Golconda
City gents without umbrellasfall from the sky like rain; I feel sorry for those fellas,bowler-hatted, dressed in grey, early for work in the morning,late home at the end of the day. Disenchanted gents are fallingpast suburban windows where their perfect wives are waiting,aprons on, scent behind ears, in their hands a glass of something,a peck […]
View from the Ochre Room
In his studio in the asylum at Saint Remy,the artist sets up his easel, takes a sheetof paper the size of a street poster (maybeit was once a poster), and attaches it,smooths it flat, arranges chalks, oils,watercolours and brushes.He chooses carefully, black chalkto sketch the window, a little off-centre.Light passes through the glass of jars,bottles […]
Woman with Flowered Hat
I cannot greet with nod of head,so I walk erect and smile insteadat passers-by who stop and stareat the flowered hat atop my hair.My neck is long, the hat is tall,I must beware in case it falls.Tottering along the crowded lanes,I dodge the parasols and canes;the flamboyant blossoms on my hatraise whispering and lots of […]
Matching – a poem on Visual Verse
After a couple of months of not responding to Visual Verse, I am delighted that they chose to include my poem on page 41 of the latest issue, Volume 10 Chapter 11. The image by Kitty Harrison x Dylan Sauerwein was an unusual one that inspired amazing prose and poetry, including some by familiar poets, including […]
Deirdre’s Accordian – a poem on Visual Verse
I am delighted that Visual Verse chose to include my poem on page 30 of the latest issue, Volume 10 Chapter 7. The image is not a modern or surreal one, as they often are, but a classical painting by John Everett Millais. It really caught my imagination and that of the other contributors. All the pieces, […]
