Ekphrastic poems

In my poetry class today we walked over to the art gallery on campus and then wrote poems from the inspiration we got from the art. I wasn't sure if I would come up with anything, but it didn't turn out so bad. I ended up five poems, only two from the art and then three that just kind of came to me. I'm going to share two of these poems, one from each pile. This first one was inspired by the painting Shark from Sharon Birzer. The original idea started out as a list poem, but it ended quite different as you will see.


Things You Find in a Shark

The fisherman pulled up a shark today,
a real whale of a beast.
It no longer looked fearsome
hanging by that hook.
It just looked sad as they
weighed it and clocked it
in at over three hundred pounds.

And then they gutted it,
right there on the dock
letting the blood drip down
into the water as the sad
creatures guts spilled forth.

People, oohed and awed as
the fisherman told the
story of fighting off the beast
and the great honor they gave
him by dragging him ashore.



This  next poem is the third I wrote while in Kittredge (the art gallery), it is a little different, but I still like it. Don't worry my brain isn't really crowded, I just liked the idea.


The Crowd

It's crowded in here,
my brain I mean,
there just isn't enough space
to stretch out and
everyone is just so noisy.

I remember a teacher of mine
who told me about a crowd
his once was in, where
the people were so tightly
packed together that he
could reach down and
pick up his feet.
He would just slowly sink down
and the reach down and
grab his feet again.

It isn't that crowded in here,
but I wonder if it ever will be or
if someday the crowd will disperse
and I'll be the only one here
picking up my feet and
slowly sinking down.


Copyright 2007 William Curb