On Saturday night, I went to an “Art Crawl” at the Columbia Pike Artists Studios near Washington D.C. My artist friend Marina Di Carlo recently set up shop there, and I bought one of her pieces, “Satellites,” that I’d been coveting on her website. It’s a very modern piece, but the gold tones and intricate circles in the background remind me of Klimt – probably why I was drawn to it. I’m looking forward to writing a poem inspired by the piece, especially now that I can see the details up close.
I’ve written a number of poems inspired by art, which are now in my book, Between Gods. Sometimes when I’m feeling blocked and can’t think of a subject to write about, flipping though one of my art books of Klimt, Vermeer, or Matisse gets me going again, gives me a place to start.
Here are some of my poems inspired by Klimt, which originally appeared in the Notre Dame Review and now appear on the online journal, Redux. Enjoy!
and I love these lyrical and resonant lines from “The Painter”
…”When he spoke
he could feel the image slip
from its solid monument
into division and when her voice
stopped he could assemble the pieces
again, the way a man would see her
without ever knowing her, as if beauty
was a need he could make.”
from “Between Gods” by Donna Lewis Cowan
http://www.amazon.com/Between-Gods-Donna-Lewis-Cowan/dp/1936370670