[From a Poetry Workshop on Ekphrastic* writing given by Pauletta Hansel. The poetry challenge was to find a picture on the walls of The Essex Art Studios where the workshop was being held that called to us, and write a poem. Here is mine.]
“Red Shoe”
Kevin T. Kelly
Serigraph 19″x19″
©2017
There was a time before…
before the guy selling lettuce
said “I don’t think of you
as an old person.”
A time when grey didn’t
dominate the landscape.
Mirrors meant a quick
combing, maybe some lipstick.
There was a time before
shoes became practical.
Memories burn of a time
when people noticed.
Where anticipation
of a steamy night
was just life.
There was a time before…
*Ekphrastic: This is a word from the Greek which means “one art form commenting on another.”
Ah, I remember that time….but I’m just as happy at this time of my life, too. The gray on the landscape often signifies a lot of growth on the inside.
Mmmmm … YES! I LOVE this. It is thick with layers and tugs in sooo many familiar ways. Thank you. ❤️
Brilliant!
Very creative but this one went completely over my head! You have exposed my intellectual ceiling…
What a poem! The meaning. The shoe is such an appropriate symbol for a woman as her years pass. You can always change the color of your hair but you cannot change what shoes you are capable of wearing. Such wrenching truth. Shoes are more beautifully designed than they ever were before in my lifetime. I envy the shoe wearers wishing I could be the one to walk, run, and dance in those beautiful objects. Never again. The poem is a splendid way of stating life and it’s course.