That Feeding Frenzy of Our Lives

Neil Ellman

PER CAPITA
(after the painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat)
—Neil Ellman, Livingston, NJ
 
E-Pluribus (not quite) Unum
one man (not woman)
(almost) one vote
the per capita income
of Alabama
(not quite that) of Colorado
or New York
     (barely one) per head
     (not) mind
     (nor) soul
created equal (almost)
and crown thy good
with brotherhood
(nearly)
from sea to shining sea.

_____________________

THE PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY OF DEATH
IN THE MIND OF SOMEONE LIVING

(after the sculpture by Damien Hurst)

—Neil Ellman

                        I

Forever swimming in formaldehyde
forever trapped in glass and steel
forever motionless
forever young
forever
live

                      II

The Tiger Shark circles in its place
swallowing life and death
in gulps of salty faith
forever young
forever
live

                     III

Always alive, forever dead,
the irony of the
endless hunt
the feeding frenzy
of its life
now still.

______________________

FLOOD IMPROVISATION
(after the painting by Wassily Kandinsky)

—Neil Ellman

In the beginning
after a flood of light
     deluged the world
so many molecules
gasping for air
cells improvising
arms and legs
the fundaments of sight
and thought

deviation
devotion
      alluvion
and morning prayers        

continents drifting apart
countless islands adrift
in a spawning sea

(so many species
yet unborn)

how nature creates
and recreates
this multitude of lights
that we call life.

____________________

CAPTIVE PIERROT
(after painting by Paul Klee)

—Neil Ellman
 
The pierrot held captive
by his painted face
and masquerade
an absence in the heart
he pantomimes
what love must be
in still another life
without a stage.

____________________

BALLOON DOG (BLUE)

(after the porcelain sculpture
by Jeff Koons)

—Neil Ellman
 

The blue balloon
barks bow wow
bow wow
wags its tail
at the moon
bow wow
turned blue
twisted in bows
and wows
filled with hot air
in porcelain skin
bows & bonnets
blue
a dog howling
in the dark
bow wow
and how
it growls
at the trembling
moon
and still
this dog won’t hunt.

_____________________

Neil Ellman is a retired educator living and writing in New Jersey.  After a long hiatus from writing poetry, he found a way through ekphrasis to combine his life-long loves of poetry and art.  During the last three years, he has published hundreds of poems, many of them ekphrastic, in print and online journals throughout the world.  In addition, he has nine chapbooks to his credit, the most recent of which, Double-Takes, also based on works of modern art, is available as a free PDF download at Fowlpox.tk.

_____________________

Today's LittleNip:

RESPITE

—Michael Cluff, Corona

My place of peace,

baroque or bare silence,

is no needed size,

dimension or fiat;

one square inch

would accomplish more

than enough

repairing

of the blasted and then pinched being

the humming and whining world

sometimes refuses to let me

completely become.

_____________________

—Medusa

There are still some Saturday slots for Cal. Poets in the Schools' conference which begins Sept. 14; see cpits.org/events.htm

Also: we have another new photo album from Katy Brown on Medusa's Facebook page: Powwow 2! Check it out! 

Neil Ellman