Hope everyone had a frank and productive April. Here’s your visual poetry prompt for the merry month of May. Post your poetic response in the comments below.
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is an organizer of Living Poetry, a collection of poets in the Triangle region of North Carolina where he has hosted a monthly feedback workshop for more than decade. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he lives and writes poetry.
This picture holds so much, hard to narrow it down to one thought, but here goes! 😊
https://gypsieswritingmusingsquotesgripes.com/2022/05/02/the-painting/
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 3:21 PMYou capture her frustration well.
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | May 2, 2022, 5:00 PMThank you very much Cassa Bassa!
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 5:50 PMNice flow and rhyming! Works so well.
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 5:28 PMThank you so much ts! 😊
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 5:48 PMWho’s a Go for Van Gogh?
I have the hat, the artist’s boots
my dress is long and artful
like sunflowers I turn with the sun
but my canvas has no sparkle.
Pondering reveals the soul
that creativity may soar
but the boulder is no comfy seat
and the photographer’s a bore.
A yellow room, a blue chair,
a pool table in the cafe,
I have them all, even the paint,
but my works are all cliché.
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 5:40 PMThis is quite wonderful in its merriment and lively descriptions! A great fun to read! Great work! ☺️
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 5:54 PMLovely! (I think the beret is the key to the outfit.)
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 2, 2022, 7:54 PMGreat work! That’s the great thing about visual prompts: I get to see the image through the poet’s eyes. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 2, 2022, 7:47 PMThank you! Great prompt from a great poet! 😊
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 8:06 PMThis looks like a tough one to write. I need to pick an angle…
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | May 2, 2022, 5:01 PMIn reply to Bartholomew’s comment about his ‘Frank’ April:
The Frank April
April lacks all certainty,
is not forthright, but undependable,
a sheer prankster of a gal.
full of guile and artfulness
Rain and sun alternate recklessly
enough to make one ready
to go on pilgrimages
with monks and butcher’s wives.
Dissemblance is April’s
strongest suit, the cruelest month,
some warmth, some cold,
some wind some rain.
The chicanery of April
that comes again on little cat feet,
some foggy morning,
or mud-luscious with balloons,
Can no longer comfort me
with the redness of little buds
opening stickily,
we know what we know.
April is at best a sticky mess,
sap rises, mud clings,
and the robin song goes over and over,
a broken record.
The trickiness of April,
the sheer vagrancy,
makes blossomy May a frilly respite,
apple blossoms drift silent down,
We rest, and sigh, April’s damp lap
spare and cold, is rousted by May,
and leaves us dream of June’s
ample, rose filled, afternoons.
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 5:12 PMGreat work! Love all the references to the other Spring poems, Eliot, Sandburg, Cummings, Millay at least. I wouldn’t be surprised if I missed some.
All from my throw-away comment designed not to distract from the picture.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 2, 2022, 7:52 PMSo cool that you recognized all these, I think you got them all.. nice to know someone knows about the literature of the past rapidly becoming more distant.
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 8:22 PMThank you, Gypsy! Much appreciated feedback.
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 5:55 PMOh, I like that one too and it’s so true! About April making you blue I mean!! (Laughing at my Silliness) Thank you, I needed a major pick me up today. 🙃
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 6:04 PMGypsie, So nice to hear your comments, I hope your day gets much better! Sincerely, TS.
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 6:08 PMThank you most kindly! So happy you stopped by! 🙏
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Posted by Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris | May 2, 2022, 6:09 PMMaybe we should all try writing poetry wearing a beret, Qu’est-ce que vous pensez?
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Posted by ts19page | May 2, 2022, 8:25 PMIt is a beautiful picture! Here is my response attempt.
Pictured Frame: posted on: yourplateormine967244485.Wordpress.com
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Posted by yourplateormine967244485 | May 2, 2022, 8:33 PMVery nice! Was this a double-ekphrastic poem, written to the picture I found online and Gypsie’s poem written about the pic?
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 2, 2022, 8:38 PMThank you, l believe so, I hope l gave credit to the right person. I am a bit new at maneuvering my or this blog activity. 😌
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Posted by yourplateormine967244485 | May 2, 2022, 8:57 PMWish I could linger
In a field of wildflowers
Thinking about nothing
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | May 2, 2022, 8:42 PMGreat little haiku!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 2, 2022, 8:42 PMI can hear the sarcasm loud and clear
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Posted by JeanMarie | May 3, 2022, 2:36 AMHiding in plain site
The police will never know
I stole a Van Go
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Posted by JeanMarie | May 3, 2022, 2:45 AMFunny!
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | May 3, 2022, 12:29 PMHa! Nice one.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 3, 2022, 5:18 PMSo, the van go’s gone?
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Posted by ts19page | May 3, 2022, 6:33 PMYep. 😊
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Posted by JeanMarie | May 3, 2022, 11:52 PMDoll
She is that girl
confined in the mold
they carved out for her
Every bit of her is labelled
categorised and put aside
for the common view of this world
All is in order
But all is out of place
in the creator’s eye
She can’t survive
She can’t shine
She is miserable in nature’s sight
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | May 3, 2022, 6:34 AMWow. Fascinating portrait there. Great job!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 3, 2022, 5:19 PMThank you! I look at the picture for quite some time, eventually landed on this interpretation.
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Posted by Cassa Bassa | May 3, 2022, 5:37 PMI had the thoughts…
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Posted by Chris Clarke | May 4, 2022, 10:09 AMI hate non-editable text … I felt the same thing when I wrote my poem. She is illusion… At best a plastic image of what someone might think an artist looks like.
Actual practicioners know that reality is much more messy than that image, like life, even if somewhere, we connect to the image, at least a little.
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Posted by Chris Clarke | May 4, 2022, 7:30 PMNice picture with the contrast of ‘all in order’, but still ‘out of place’.
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Posted by ts19page | May 4, 2022, 10:54 AMThe lies we hold
so dear to our hearts
bind us in chains of our imagination
beautiful
imagined aubergine and lavender
a tawny view of our dreams below
look instead at the paint under your fingernails
and wipe the ink from your hands
the words you have written
tells a truth more vivid
than the pastel stupor
of a far-off apparition holds
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Posted by Chris Clarke | May 4, 2022, 10:08 AMNice wording: ‘pastel stupor’. Enjoyed the choices of unusual color, tawny, lavender and aubergine!
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Posted by ts19page | May 4, 2022, 10:50 AMLovely. It’s good to see after hearing you read it at the open mic last night. Good job!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 4, 2022, 5:43 PMLikeLiked by 1 person
Posted by Stine Writing and Miniatures | May 4, 2022, 1:00 PMVery nice. I especially liked the final stanza. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | May 4, 2022, 5:48 PMThank you!
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Posted by Stine Writing and Miniatures | May 4, 2022, 6:15 PM