My portrait painted, she said

I sat sedately while

the master painted me

in brush strokes sure and swift,

confidence unbounded.

I wore my new green dress

(which I simply adored)

matching my new green hat.

Do you find the likeness

fine and true, idealized?

Over at TweetSpeak Poetry, Seth Haines has a Surrealist poetry prompt – write a poem based on a painting by Salvador Dali or Pablo Picasso. I didn’t want to dally with Dali, so I went with a Picasso. You can see other submitted poems by checking Seth’s post.

This poem is also submitted to Open Link Night at dVersePoets. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today. 

The Red Tower

Within the safe shadow, shaded from the sun

I sit quietly on my wooden block, with splinters,

watching a statue offer its growing blackness,

a sacrifice to the tower,

a red tower,

isn’t it obvious

overwhelming countryside as it is meant to,

a fortress for a Medici, perhaps, or a cardinal,

rising to the Prussian sky. (Does anyone say

Prussian any more?)

The horseman gallops from a marbleized pedestal,

galvanized hooves on compacted earth.

I keep looking for the cardinal

I keep looking for the birds

as I rest my neck

on my wooden block.

The TweetSpeak poetry theme this month is Surrealism, and Seth Haines has asked us to listen to some rather surrealistic music (complete with playlist), do some research, and write a poem. So after listening to Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold,” Peter Bradley Adams’ “Darkening Sky” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” off I went to find a Surrealist painting or two, and ran into Giorgio de Chirico. To see what others are up to, surrealistically speaking, of course, visit TweetSpeak Poetry.

This poem is also submitted to Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time.

Illustration: The Red Tower, oil on canvas by Giorgio de Chirico (1913), Guggenheim Museum.