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I’m a fan of the ekphrastic poem and have written some myself. If you’re a poet, you just can’t help it. Poets and artists have always been friends. What the artist lets you see, the poet lets you hear, the picture worth a thousand words and the poem as visible as a sculpture in the mind’s eye.

Many of the poems in Burt Kimmelman’s newest book, A Door, a Window, are ekphrastic, although the last poem in the book is not. It’s entitled “Put It Back.” I’ve read it several times now and I’m sure I will read it some more, and I’m including it here because what I enjoy, I want others to enjoy.

Put It Back

Put it back. Put
it back in place.
It has a place
where it belongs—

put it back there.
Put it where it
belongs—which is
not here. That place

is where it must
go (back to). Put
it there (in its
place). Everything

has a place. Here
is not there. There
is where it goes.
So put it there

There are no unnecessary words in “Put It Back.” This holds true for the other poems in this book as well. What fits, what deserves to be looked at, the right word, the essential vision, the beautiful truth is what’s left. Burt Kimmleman reads from A Door, a Window in the Vimeo below. Enjoy.

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Burt Kimmelman reads from A Door, a Window

This is “Burt Kimmelman reads from A Door, a Window” by Don Yorty on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

 

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The following three poems inspired by the photographs of Gordon Parks

Summer Street

Lower the window just
so the kids (sun in their
faces, smiles) can peer
into the dark back seat,
the camera’s failed gaze—
one boy’s eyes, his worry.

 

The Visit

Open window to her
neighbor, white clapboard house—
immaculate blue dress,
white hat, purse, gloves,fan—hand
on hip, they take their time,
one of summer‘s pleasures.

 

Upright Joy

Young dancers are leaping
from their school’s stone bench, white
framed windows behind them—
flight’s moment—white dresses
afloat, right arms raised, white
bows in their hair, white socks.

 

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Love Scene

.……..   ……..Käthe Kollwitz, 1909–1910
……….   …….Love Scene 1
………   ……..Black crayon, wiped on paper
……….   …….Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

Only the naked
know abandon. To
make love is to know
sorrow, ecstasy-
lovers holding one

another in their
embrace. He has wrapped
his legs around her—
his head in her arms.
She clasps him to her

breasts. Her head is flung
back. Grief and love are
what is on offer.
Lovers want no end
to their conjoining.

 

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A Door, a Window is published by Marsh Hawk Press: You can check it out here:

https://www.ipgbook.com/a-door–a-window-products-9798987617793.php