The Sunday Poem: Guernica

 Posted by (Visited 8326 times)  The Sunday Poem
Oct 302005
 

A separation of pigments: my point of view is not where I look

I can only filter events through newsprint
Picasso’s grey immanence pervades and defines

Where is the gradual nervousness?
The regime pilot’s eye as he drops the bomb?
Staring at the elongated frame that focusses
straining at the edge of canvas:

The hoarse of a scream
is dirt driven deep under fingernails
The scream of a horse is scrabbling
Guernica:
how terrifying to be told where to think
how to think
the shape of thinking
how peaceful

  4 Responses to “The Sunday Poem: Guernica”

  1. Ramblings of a little Blue Gnoll says:
    February 6, 2006 at 7:00 am

    Blogroll Joel on SoftwareRaph Koster Sunny Walker Thoughts for Now Sex, Lies and Advertising

  2. Raph says:
    October 30, 2005 at 1:20 pm

    I wrote this as part of a series of “painting poems.” The painting poems were all about the imposition of a worldview, about the way in which art of all stripes is essentially propagandistic mind control.

    Among the things I messed with in the poem are the stanza breaks; each stanza is twice the length of the preceding one, which echoes stuff we find in pictorial art, such as the golden ratio and foreshortening in perspective.

  3. Psychochild says:
    October 31, 2005 at 2:03 am

    As some people know, I have a degree in Spanish Literature, which included a bit of art critique. A very cool poem about a painting I’m quite familiar with. 🙂

  4. rod humble says:
    October 31, 2005 at 2:31 pm

    Great site Raph.

    FYI this is an inspirational read for poetry if you are interested.

    Letters: Summer 1926: A series of letters between Boris Pasternak, Marian Tsvetayeva, and Rainer Maria Rilke. Really good stuff.

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