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Picture

Neil Ellman

Reverie
 
He 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.
Picture
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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