“Four Loaves of Stone, Ascending” by Joel VegaPosted by Rattle
Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2020: Editor’s Choice
Image: “Dream Spirit” by Christopher Whitney. “Four Loaves of Stone, Ascending” was written by Joel Vega for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2020, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “As much as possible, I try to choose a poem each month that’s different from the artist’s choice, so that this series can show the breadth of human imagination. It worked out well this time, as the two poems couldn’t be more different in length, style, and interpretation. I loved the timeless beauty of Joel Vega’s response, and the haunting ambiguity of those last few lines. The title alone could be a poem, and you’d be hard pressed to find a phrase more pleasurable to speak than ‘loaves of stone.’ I found myself returning just to say that phrase aloud again.”
“One for Sorrow” by Carmel BuckinghamPosted by Rattle
Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2020: Artist’s Choice
Image: “Dream Spirit” by Christopher Whitney. “One for Sorrow” was written by Carmel Buckingham for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2020, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
Comment from the artist, Christopher Whitney: “As I read and re-read the poems, this one kept coming back to me, stayed on top of the pile. I think of the day I made the photo, on a beach near Monterrey with two other photographer friends, each looking for his own shot the way the poets each looked for their way to respond to my image. In ‘One for Sorrow,’ the poet captured imagery the way I tried to do in my photo. There is a personification to the bird that brings me into the narrator’s story, lets me sit with him/her at that window, looking out and trying to see a glimpse of myself in the other, of peering into nature to answer life’s questions and then realizing the answers are in the simplest things, like the bird’s gifts. I enjoyed the flow of the poem, each stanza a gift to the whole, giving life to the crow as the crow gives life to the narrator.”