Stanzaic Stylings

Symphony No. 1, The Transcendental  by Richard Pousette-Dart I mbalance of Time (after the painting by Richard Pousette-Dart) On the other side of what we know an hour is no more an hour than east is truly east or light the feel of snow. To travel from here to there is a matter of perspective, faith, not time, a journey imagined, neither short nor long, the contents of the sea in a measuring cup. The present feeds the past like a mothering lion feeds her young and the past is nothing more than the future in its mouth. There is neither proportion nor equivalence nor harmony when time, uncertain, out of balance is barely now. Neil Ellman is a poet from New Jersey.  He has published numerous poems, more than 1,000 of  which  are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.  He has been nominated t...

Moon Meditation  by Richard Pousette-Dart Moon Meditation (after the painting by Richard Pousette-Dart) Walking on the moon in the breathlessness of dust no wind, the cold cutting like diamond blades of ice through stone and skin the first perhaps the last I walk in the shadow of the gods who came before.   At the Sea of Tranquility I am alone with no one to guide me but the stars and no one to believe in but myself. Neil Ellman is a poet from New Jersey.  He has published numerous poems, more than 1,000 of  which  are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.  He has been nominated twice for the  Pushcart Prize  and twice for  Best of the Net. Editors Note :  This is an ekphrastic poem and based on a work of modern art. The title of this poem is that of the original ima...

(after the painting by George Condo) Billy Has Mind Tics (after the painting by George Condo) Billy has mind tics the kind that makes his eyes go pop when he sees a painting by Miró or considers his own mortality and the ever-expanding universe. The kind that makes him fix his tie even when he isn’t wearing one or his brain goes blank when he tries to remember his name or the shape of his soul.                                    The kind that makes him shout obscenities at the moon    for doing little more than laughing at his silly jokes and glowing when there is no need.    Poor Billy can’t sit still. He lives on Adderal and Ritalin. He doesn’t drink coffee anymore but his hands still tremble when he hears a spider in the dark. ...

(painting by Perle Fine) Ceremony of a Kind (after the painting by Perle Fine) In celebration of the day our world ended and a new one born swaddled in a cloth of stars we march to the beat of a distant drummer and raise our flags to victory and the magical arrogance of the children we were. It is a ceremony of a kind with ritual sacrifice letting of blood effigies on fire and painted faces to mask our misgivings and our fear no longer children we parade beneath the arches of a life we had left behind. We are the inheritors of a history forgotten or never learned that we shall repeat because we have no other choice. Neil Ellman is a poet from New Jersey.  He has published numerous poems, more than 1,000 of  which  are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.  He has been nominated twice fo...

Evolution How I evolved is not how I hoped to be. At the beginning when i consisted of a single cell I could have been an ichthyosaur a whale, rhinoceroses, giraffe or possibly a horse. I could have become a jellyfish, an antelope, a bee almost anything that breathed and ate and crapped. Instead I became a slithering, immoral creature with an opposable thumb prone to heart disease diarrhea, dyspepsia and guilt— In other words, a man. Neil Ellman is a poet from New Jersey.  He has published numerous poems, more than 1,000 of  which  are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern art, in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.  He has been nominated twice for the  Pushcart Prize  and twice for  Best of the Net.

Small Worlds I Painting by  Wassily Kandinsky Small Worlds I (painting by Wassily Kandinsky) Not an iota      not a dot barely more than a particle of light a syllable      a single word a fragment of a sentence without a point       and yet contains  multitudes of meaning myriad colors on a never-ending wheel the shape of infinity in a drop of blood       on the hands of time— how small these worlds this universe       in the darkness of an amaranthine night waiting for the light      the word and the cries of a child about to be born. Neil Ellman is a poet from New Jersey.  He has published numerous poems, more than 1,000 of  which  are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern art, in print and online journals, anthologies an...