Poetry Painting Project: Day 23

ABOUT THE POETRY PAINTING PROJECT

We selected 30 poems (from the public domain) and each day for the next 30 days I will write a poem inspired by it, and Addie will paint a painting.

So, without further ado, let’s get to today’s painting and poem, inspired by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Stanzas.

To read this poem, click here (or scroll down near the bottom of the page)


ADDIE’S PAINTING

Come To Me In My Dreams
By Addie Hirschten

MY POEM

HOW I WISH YOU WERE HERE

How I wish you were here,
the way you once were
before we planted our wounded spirits
like flags on a pocked, war-torn hill.

Perhaps I’ll wait for Spring
when the cherry trees are blossoming,
and on my anamnestic skin
glisten fabled mornings.

Yet insensible is the withering heart
that clutches at dead winter air,
for God has given me graces.
These are no mere words—
Truth flowers in every perfumed letter.


OUR INSPIRATION

STANZAS
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!
I will not ask a dearer bliss;
Come with the starry beams, my love,
And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.

’Twas thus, as ancient fables tell,
Love visited a Grecian maid,
Till she disturbed the sacred spell,
And woke to find her hopes betrayed.

But gentle sleep shall veil my sight,
And Psyche’s lamp shall darkling be,
When, in the visions of the night,
Thou dost renew thy vows to me.

Then come to me in dreams, my love,
I will not ask a dearer bliss;
Come with the starry beams, my love,
And press mine eyelids with thy kiss.


Notes:
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1797-1851. Born in Somers Town, London, England
Link to Biography: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mary-wollstonecraft-shelley
Link to Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50261/stanzas-oh-come-to-me-in-dreams-my-love


ABOUT THE POETRY PAINTING PROJECT

For the past couple of months I have been working on a huge new secret project with my painter, Addie Hirshten, of Studio Alchemy

We selected 30 poems (from the public domain) and each day for the next 30 days I will write a poem inspired by it, and Addie will paint a painting.

Expect an outpouring of creative energy! This is the sort of big project that artists live for … where we can say what we yearn to say.  Big picture stuff. Heart wrenching stuff. I feel so inspired by the poetry we are working with AND seeing Addie’s process as well. Expect daily surprises with our posts. Expect passion. Expect love. Expect life.

Check Out Addie’s Instagram Account: www.instagram.com/alchemy.of.art.addie.hirschten/

Check out Addie’s art studio — Studio Alchemy:
studioalchemy.art/

God is really another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.

Pablo Picasso

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