Bountiful Fire / The Questions

(poetry)

Magdalene with the Smoking Flame by Georges de La Tour, 1640

I’ve written previously about the father of the art-poem or the ‘calligram’, Guillame Apollinaire, in this post:

Inspirate / Infinite Coastlines

But aside from Apollinaire, very few others have excelled at art-poetry like the American poet, editor, and critic John Hollander. In my opinion his best work was ‘Swan and Shadow’, which continues to be the high-water mark for my attempts at art-poetry.

Below are two original art-poems I’ve created in homage to John Hollander’s great work. I hope you enjoy them.

This first poem may be the most ambitious art-poem I’ve constructed to date; a work about maintaining the sacred flame, the beliefs and traditions of our forebears:

And this second work may be the simplest of all my art-poems. Four simple questions, levelled at you, the reader:

I hope you find something edifying here, and that one (or both) of these art-poems serves as a waymarker to you.