Neil EllmanHe closes his eyes to remember a time long passed the place of his boyhood among the wind-blown trees ripped from their roots by men and machines where creatures of his dreams ruled their forest world in exuberant innocence in kinship with the land and sky when the sun could barely penetrate the canopy crowned by star-like leaves. He remembers it all too well In a haze of dreams the simple village life his gods of stone and fire he alone an outcast in a troubled world where strangers speak in incoherent tongues. The air was clear now the scent of steel; silence then now the traffic’s roar; the sea was bountiful now devoid of life-- there were birds then but they have taken flight. Author's Comments -
When I first saw the painting by Ms. Darrow, the first thing that struck me was the loneliness, isolation, separation and silent desperation of the central figure with his eyes closed to his surroundings. He was, as a line in the poem attempted to say by analogy, a tree ripped from its roots--a primitive survivor in a modern world he did not understand. |
Neil Elman, a poet from New Jersey, has published more than 1,250 poems, many of which are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern and contemporary art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks in twenty different nations. He has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and twice for Best of the Net. His latest chapbook, Mind Over Matta (Flutter Press, 2015), is based on the art of the Chilean abstract-surrealist, Roberto Matta Echaurren.
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