November PAD Challenge 2022: Day 27: Artful Resolution

 

Henri Rousseau Self Portrait from L’ile Saint Louis

The artist Henri Rousseau

Painted himself bigger than life, you know

He stood at the center

Of the portrait he rendered

Where he was the best thing on show

I resolve to be like Henri

To make my life more about me

The way that I see it

I shouldn't dream it, but be it

Imagination will set me free

~Arty Owl Has Spoken~

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

notes and prompts used

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/2022-november-pad-chapbook-challenge-day-27

Prompt: For today's prompt, write a resolution poem.

https://imprompt.wordpress.com/2022/11/27/day-27/

Prompt: The self-portrait by Henri Rousseau

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau; (21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910) was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality.

His self-portrait, painted in 1890, is on display in the National Gallery in Prague.

Today's Playlist

https://odysee.com/@GamingAmbience:6/the-ascent-highstreet-cosmodrome-%281-hour:c?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16&lid=1efd39d91f3ef0894d6f6ec7aa4c51f99279535c

NaPoWriMo 2020 Day 6 + April PAD Challenge Day 6 + April PAD Countdown Catch-Up Day 4: Trap

Lying loose and limp without a thought

That anything might do me harm

Between powerful jaws I was helplessly caught

My heart exploded with alarm

Basking in the sunlight's sultry charm

Suddenly with peril I was fraught

By unexpected assault was I disarmed 

Lying loose and limp without a thought

Every caution I'd been taught

Went hazy in the spring day's charm

To my detriment, I'd full forgot

That anything might do me harm

I had no defenses to rearm

A docile, helpless forest tot

My spirit quivered with alarm

Between powerful jaws I was helplessly caught

A simple lesson can be taught

From my fatal fall to harm

My last moments were with terror fraught

My heart exploded with alarm

The sweet spring day has lost its charm

Bones picked clean and left to rot

No elegy or call to arms

For prey animals by predators caught

Lying loose and limp

~cie~

notes

NaPoWriMo: Write a poem from the point of view of one person/animal/thing from Hieronymous Bosch’s famous (and famously bizarre) triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.

April PAD Challenge Day 6: Write a "trap" poem.

April PAD Countdown Catch-Up Day 4: Write an elegy

Poetry Style: Rondeau Redouble

Split Screen

Here is a neat little short film that I enjoyed. I think of it as poetry in motion!

The Girl Behind the Flowers

Girl with Flowers by Joaquin Sorolla

 

The Girl Behind the Flowers

by

Opal Zushaquon

 

The challenge from Imaginary Garden with Real Toads was to write a short poem inspired by one of Sorolla's pictures. There were many to choose from, but I settled on this one.

 

The physical body

of the girl behind the flowers

Is long gone

 

I stand here today

Silver-haired and stout

Dead hopes scattered at my feet

 

But if you look into the eyes

Of the gray-haired fat lady

You will see the ghost of that young dreamer

 

~Opal~