Poetry Painting Project: Day 9

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 Amy Lowell’s poem, The Painter on Silk.

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


ADDIE’S PAINTING

Painter of Roses By Addie Hirshten

MY POEM

PITY

Such a pity
for a man not to stop,
not for a damned minute,
not for a solid hour,
to fill his starving soul
with a child’s wonder.

I tell you frankly
that what he thinks is real
is of no real consequence.

Will he not instead
listen to the sky’s lyre,
and the lazy arpeggios of clouds,
in soft, sweet repose?

So must I call him
to himself
and tell him of his freedom,
so that he may paint the world
with his spirit’s true brush.


OUR INSPIRATION

THE PAINTER ON SILK
by Amy Lowell

There was a man
Who made his living
By painting roses
Upon silk.

He sat in an upper chamber
And painted,
And the noises of the street
Meant nothing to him.

When he heard bugles, and fifes, and drums,
He thought of red, and yellow, and white roses
Bursting in the sunshine,
And smiled as he worked.

He thought only of roses,
And silk.

When he could get no more silk,
He stopped painting
And only thought
Of roses.

The day the conquerors
Entered the city
The old man
Lay dying.
He heard the bugles and drums
And wished he could paint the roses
Bursting into sound.


Notes:

Amy Lowell 1874-1925. Born in Brookeline, Massechusetts.
Link to Biography: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amy-lowell
Link to Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=13729


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/

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.

Oscar Wilde

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