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HOPE LIVES - ART INSPIRED POETRY

The poetry that you will read here, is from a Wine Tasting & Ekphrastic Poetry Event held in May 2023 during the Hope Lives: Art for ALS exhibition at the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery.

 

Ekphrastic poetry are poems written about and/or inspired by artwork. Participating Poets for this event were: Peter Kline, Brittany Perham, Dean Rader, Sarah Rosenthal & Kim Shuck.

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Cicada

by Peter Kline, inspired by Kim Cardoso's "Pruning"

​

My first world was the underworld. No ghost
could be so shy. Unmoved by lust or blood
I waited out my life with sly disgust
and claimed by squatter’s rights the rights of the dead.


I was reborn an exhibitionist––
I made a death-mask of my outgrown soul.
Now my you-hoos rattle against the rest.
The softest singers are most vulnerable.

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Seed Pod

By Kim Shuck, inspired by Ken Gold's Seed Pod

 

Each biot 

Saves best work for the

Seeds

Generative purple and

Songs of soil in yellow the

Texture and shape of 

Hope an

Unfettered sevenfold

Rotational just

Asymmetry 

Giant’s hand 

Reference to very old

Stories from

Where the sun rises a

Strength move to catch the eye

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Woven Hearts #1

By Kim Shuck, inspired by Claudia McDermott's Woven Hearts #1

​

That preference is made of

Other words 

Words not ours

Layered and layered that

Each point of 

Crossing each

Place where the 

Weaving opens where the 

Pattern 

Hands

Balance

Over

Where each word

Makes space for

Another 

Giving and taking

Weight where the

Lines

Shift and

Mutter in

Language that is ours or

Not but

Shared

Nevertheless

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POEM COMING SOON!

By Brittany Perham, inspired by Dee Tivenan's "Lining Up"

​

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REVERSE

by Dean Rader, inspired by Kim Cardoso's "Digging"

 

After Digging

 

:but here is the galaxy

 

in reverse:

 

a negative cosmos:

 

the unending darkness now 

 

a smear 

 

of light: spread 

 

out among its infinite 

 

nothingness:

 

the suns tiny holes


​

unshining back into their black

  

     capes:

 

pinpricks of particle

 

and wave:

 

spores on a beach of bleached

 

out matter:

 

as though the eternal were digging

 

down to where everything begins

 

and ends: radiance reversing:

 

emptiness advancing: time itself sucked into 

 

shadow:

 

in which god is present:

 

and space is sparse but sweet:

 

even creamy: 

 

the stars little lesions

 

flecking the white field 

 

of forever:

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