Thursday, December 10, 2009

Art Lecture 101 (Poem)

Art Lecture 101

What do you talk about
when you talk about
lecturing on modern art
in a nursing home?

No one wants to hear
that old news about
Picasso's Blue Period!

You see,
blue's a color
they get too well
after the last visitor's gone.

Mondrian's neatly divided
blocks of big strong
reds and greens and yellows?

They won't do, either,
sorry to say.

After a while
minds tend to lose
hold of one compartment
after another.

Kandinsky?
A reject, too.

So many circles,
like the halls
they roam after hours,
once the meals are done,
leave them dizzy
going nowhere.

Well, how about Chagall,
then?

Girls on goats,
houses high in air,
figures floating
with feet off ground!

Perfect,
they stir at last:
Dreamscapes.

Sure enough,
dreams escape
their lips,
no longer held close
like the last kiss
they remember giving
the one they love.
____________________

Until I saw Kelly's post here today, I'd forgotten that L.L. Barkat at High Calling Blogs had extended an invitation to participate in creating a Random Act of Poetry based on words or a phrase heard "In Conversation" — tweeted or otherwise. So, taking as my prompt Michael Steger's tweeted line "lecturing on modern art in a nursing home", I dashed this off a few minutes ago, and dropped my link here in L.L.'s comment box. If you'd like to contribute something, too, be sure to leave your link at the same place this afternoon or early this evening.

1 comment:

L.L. Barkat said...

Maureen, this stuns. Especially the end.

My, what we find at those Tweet parties.