June 29, 2021

Ekphrastic Challenge, May 2021: Editor’s Choice

 

Contradictions of Being by Neena Sethia, image of a head, a leaf, and other shapes on a blue background

Image: “Contradictions of Being” by Neena Sethia. “What It Is Is What It Is Not and What It Is Not Is What It Is” was written by Karan Kapoor for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, May 2021, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.

[download: PDF / JPG]

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Karan Kapoor

WHAT IT IS IS WHAT IT IS NOT AND WHAT IT IS NOT IS WHAT IT IS

A picture of God is not God
the way a painting of water is not wet.
An image of the sun is not hot

and all those poems about poems
are just something else. Leaves, alive
or autumnal, time alone dictates.

Disembodied lips of a corpse
cast a shadow of a blackbird
with an impressive bill—

boldly, the shadow sings of its flaw
of colorlessness. Remember, your flaws
are yours, you are not your flaws.

A face behind a face makes the one
in front a mask. Affected love is not love.
Affected harshness is still harsh.

A woman with waves for hair
does not necessarily carry
an ocean inside her

head. Notice she begins
only as a bubble
of thought. Everything blue

was once green. A star is not a star
but its memory, its history. Looking back
isn’t wanting. Memory of love is not

love. Desire to help isn’t helping.
The winged-man also falls. The horse
in my head is not the horse

in your head. A dancing man
isn’t evidence for music. The eye you look
into is always looking right back.

A flying white bird is not always a sign
of freedom. Your face and flesh
is not your self. All that is lost

is somewhere found.

from Ekphrastic Challenge
May 2021, Editor’s Choice

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Comment from the Editor, Timothy Green: “In his note that came with the entry, Karan described this poem as ‘a string of aphorisms, though born from the same impulse as a poem. And in my head, all these aphorisms are waving a flag that is Neena’s painting.’ I can’t put it any better than that. The poem explores the central theme of the painting, but verbally, creating a deep dialogue between the two forms of art. Each line is memorable and surprising, and their accumulating mystery invites multiple readings—and further explorations of the painting.”

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June 24, 2021

Ekphrastic Challenge, May 2021: Artist’s Choice

 

Contradictions of Being by Neena Sethia, image of a head, a leaf, and other shapes on a blue background

Image: “Contradictions of Being” by Neena Sethia. “Gods, Monsters, and Complex PTSD” was written by Elizabeth Train-Brown for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, May 2021, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.

[download: PDF / JPG]

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Elizabeth Train-Brown

GODS, MONSTERS, AND COMPLEX PTSD

I feel unraveled
I feel like scripture
I feel like the words of prophets
torn apart
translated
retranslated
rewritten
spread to countries that don’t care
what I have to say.

I feel like taking out the middle man
taking out the writer
the pen
the page
burrowing my face through the undergrowth
slithering through the cracks
of a confession booth
and whispering my sins
through a mouthful of leaves.

I feel like when someone drops a book
in a bath
and a touch of everything written in me
circles
the
drain
you can dry me
shake your bathwater from my spine
but I will never be the same
and you will always know the difference.

I feel like a woman’s words
    in a man’s book.
There
but in his voice.

from Ekphrastic Challenge
May 2021, Artist’s Choice

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Comment from the artist, Neena Sethia: “I loved this poem because it talks so beautifully about voice and its various contradictions, language and translations and everything that gets lost in between. There are several memorable lines in this poem, but my favourite was its end: ‘I feel like a woman’s words in a man’s book. There, but in his voice.’ I think that these lines themselves encapsulate the whole painting.”

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