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 Sappho’s poem, The Rose.
To read this poem, click here (or scroll down near the bottom of the page)
ADDIE’S PAINTING
MY POEM
SOFT RED ROSE
Soft red rose. Transcendent.
Your four petals turn—
curled, young, and eager,
like pubescent lips,
wrapped tight in your core—
into four more,
and four more in turn,
turning again and yet again,
until they singe the far-flung corners
of Love’s sublime experiment.
Soft red rose. Transcendent.
Your petals blush,
flicks of flame,
and dart like tongues,
from your mouth agape,
wet with dew
to lick the outer walls
of Love’s crimson kingdom.
Soft red rose. Transcendent.
Yours is the musk of two young lovers.
Where does She end and He begin?
Each is whole in the soul of the other.
O goddess of Love! You
sigh and unfold,
sigh and unfold.
You are both wine and toper,
both quivering limbs—
petals bent—
smiles brimming
with unspoken words
of breathless adoration—
… and the yielding eye
of Time’s tumultuous tempest—
full of milk and stars—
of joy and disbelief—
of ecstasy.
OUR INSPIRATION
THE ROSE
by Sappho
If it pleased the whim of Zeus in an idle
Hour to choose a king for the flowers, he surely
Would have crowned the rose for its regal beauty,
Deeming it peerless;
By its grace is valley and hill embellished,
Earth is made a shrine for the lover’s ardor;
Dear it is to flowers as the charm of lovely
Eyes are to mortals;
Joy and pride of plants, and the garden’s glory,
Beauty’s blush it brings to the cheek of meadows;
Draining fire and dew from the dawn for rarest
Color and odor;
Softly breathed, its scent is a plea for passion,
When it blooms to welcome the kiss of Kypris;
Sheathed in fragrant leaves its tremulous petals
Laugh in the zephyr.
Notes:
Sappho. Born est. 620 BC on the island of Lesbos. Ancient Greek Poet.
Biography: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/sappho
Link to Poem: https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pos/pos07.htm
(The Poems of Sappho, by John Myers O’Hara, 1910)
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/
One day you will wake up and there won’t be any more time to do the things you’ve always wanted. Do it now.
Paulo Coelho
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