Eratosphere Forums - Metrical Poetry, Free Verse, Fiction, Art, Critique, Discussions Able Muse - a review of poetry, prose and art

Forum Left Top

Notices

Reply
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Unread 04-04-2012, 10:27 AM
Chris O'Carroll Chris O'Carroll is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 1,826
Default New Statesman -- poems on paintings -- April 26

The spring double issue seems to be out a day early.

Bill Greenwell and I managed hon menshes, but we ain't got the do-re-mi this week. After a long run of prose competitions, here's a call for poems. I don't see a line limit specified, but the mention of sonnets probably gives some indication of the length they're looking for.

No 4224

Set by Leonora Casement

The Pre-Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti frequently wrote sonnets to accompany his pictures. We want you to send in verses to any painting of your choice. To be in by 26 April comp@newstatesman.co.uk
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Unread 04-04-2012, 10:52 AM
Roger Slater Roger Slater is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: New York
Posts: 16,475
Default

I gave it a quick try, but unfortunately I seem to have forgotten to put any jokes into it:


THE SCREAM

The sky turned red as blood. Exhausted, tense,
anxious, with anxiety that's shared
by all of nature, leaning on a fence,
as tongues of scalding flame like torches flared
across the sorry canvas of damnation,
I felt a dawning sunrise of despair
paint streaks across a canvas of negation
and knew that what I felt was everywhere,
and from my stomach's pit, the place my soul
would lurk if I could still believe in magic,
I felt a force beyond my self-control,
beyond the consolations of the tragic,
a horror, since I knew it was no dream,
and gave the only thing I could: a scream.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Unread 04-04-2012, 11:20 AM
John Whitworth's Avatar
John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12,945
Default

Are jokes obligatory, Roger? I think the Speccie sixteen lines is a good length. It has won before. Does the painting have to be real? Or can it be a literary painting?


The Picture of Dorian Gray

Lord Henry Wotton says pleasure
Is a thing to enjoy without measure.
And there isn’t much doubt what he’s talking about
Is the joy of a boy for your leisure.

Basil Hallward, the painter, is gay,
(Most of Lord Henry’s friends are that way),
And he’s pissing his pants for a chance at romance
With a honey called Dorian Gray.

This Dorian’s helluva hot
For a spell in the sack, and why not?
Added to which, the sonovabitch
Doesn’t age – not a tittle or jot.

Yes, the sheen on his skin is as soft
As a baby’s behind . Has he quaffed
Any magical fixers? His secret elixir’s
The portrait he keeps in his loft.
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Unread 04-05-2012, 05:15 PM
John Whitworth's Avatar
John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12,945
Default

Plainly Dorian won't do because it wants a poem TO the painting. But perhaps this will. It's a re-jig of something I wrote before but it fits quite well, particularly as I gather that Eros/Cupid here may well be a lover of the painter.He certainly turns up in another painting, but older. I don't know that much about Caravaggio except that he led a rackety life and (I think) killed someone.

Amor Victorious by Caravaggio

Oh you are as sweet as the ace in the hole,
As the lilt of your look and the scrub of your hair,
And your hair is as black as the black of the coal,
And the coal is as black as the deep of despair,
And your skin is as pale as the pale of the milk,
And your teeth are as sharp as the teeth of the fox,
And your touch is as smooth as the smooth of the silk,
And your eyes are like diamonds shut in a box.

You are silver as starshine, as gold as a ring,
You are fleeting and fine as a trick of the light,
You are warm as the woof and the weft of the spring,
You are cool as a pool on a soft summer night,
You are wanton and wise as the elephant’s child,
You are lissom and lithe as a broth of a boy
And as fierce and as fell as a wolf in the wild
And the birth of my pain and the death of my joy.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Unread 04-05-2012, 06:23 PM
Chris O'Carroll Chris O'Carroll is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2002
Posts: 1,826
Default

Hmm. You're more observant than I am, John. In posting the competition information, I didn't take note of that phrasing -- "verses to any painting of your choice." Given the previous sentence's mention of Rossetti's "sonnets to accompany his pictures," I'd guess that "to any painting" doesn't necessarily mean "addressed to any painting," but rather something like "in response to any painting." But I've been wrong before.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Unread 04-05-2012, 10:00 PM
John Whitworth's Avatar
John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12,945
Default

I think you're right, Chris, not me. But I can be sort of right too.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Unread 04-06-2012, 06:11 AM
Jayne Osborn's Avatar
Jayne Osborn Jayne Osborn is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Middle England
Posts: 6,950
Default An Exasperated Constable

I don't know why we hired that gormless kid.
You won't believe the stupid thing he did:
He tried to cross the river with the horse
and cart; he got about halfway, of course,
then stood there doing sod all, while I watched,
until I shouted, "Hey, Wayne, - Christ, you've botched
that job." "I know," he said. "The wheels are stuck."
I raised my eyes to heaven. What The...??
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Unread 04-12-2012, 12:15 PM
FOsen's Avatar
FOsen FOsen is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Pasadena, California
Posts: 2,378
Default

[sorry, pay no attention to that little man in the corner, impasting this over]
__________________
-- Frank

Last edited by FOsen; 04-12-2012 at 12:40 PM.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Unread 04-13-2012, 01:07 PM
Bill Greenwell's Avatar
Bill Greenwell Bill Greenwell is offline
New Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sunderland, Co. Tyne & Wear, England
Posts: 76
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris O'Carroll View Post
Hmm. You're more observant than I am, John. In posting the competition information, I didn't take note of that phrasing -- "verses to any painting of your choice." Given the previous sentence's mention of Rossetti's "sonnets to accompany his pictures," I'd guess that "to any painting" doesn't necessarily mean "addressed to any painting," but rather something like "in response to any painting." But I've been wrong before.
But I think (or hope) you're right, Chris. Otherwise I've wasted my entries!
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Unread 04-29-2012, 07:03 AM
Brian Allgar Brian Allgar is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 5,391
Default

I hope so too. But I'm sure - well, not entirely sure, because competition editors move in mysterious ways - that "to a painting" must mean "to go with a painting" or "to describe a painting".

If I'm wrong, I'll eat the hat from the sonnet competition.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump



Forum Right Top
Forum Left Bottom Forum Right Bottom
 
Right Left
Member Login
Forgot password?
Forum LeftForum Right


Forum Statistics:
Forum Members: 8,399
Total Threads: 21,840
Total Posts: 270,796
There are 895 users
currently browsing forums.
Forum LeftForum Right


Forum Sponsor:
Donate & Support Able Muse / Eratosphere
Forum LeftForum Right
Right Right
Right Bottom Left Right Bottom Right

Hosted by ApplauZ Online