Paintings & Poetry

Ekphrasis refers to an artistic device whereby one form of art is used to describe another. These poems were inspired by the abstract paintings of Francine Schrock. Their titles match her titles. More of her work can be found at www.francineschrock.com


Abstract Poems by Annie Seikonia
Inspired by the Abstract Paintings of Francine Schrock




blossom

yellow peach-red
furnace fire
in the essence of flower,
beach dawning
metal twisting
in the floating foreground
of a candling night



mud & jewel

craggy prints
amongst primrose pine –
dark palette of a
sapphire dirge



inkleined

rusty echoes of
the room behind the periwinkle
room sing,
strings quiver up from
a covert place behind
traces of skin,
knicks and wrinkles
of ghostly gloved hands

hierarchy

lemon and orange duet
in a tropical patio
coerced by green

beguiling knife edges smooth
shadows of days
ladders of stars

hearkening the red magic



more inkleined

neon indigo peacock Parish blue
and sky breath blue
remembering the scenic precision
of pastel balustrades
and ochre walls:
ceilings and beaches
now buried in flowers
saturated by violet tones
smothered in late sea
singing the frameless square




crimson

the boards of the red palace
ghost building, a nocturnal capture,
glinting now in the daylight of the café,
quietly absorbing the gossip and runes,
the ladders and mines, in their
violet looms



breeze

an Arctic geometry
sings through the shattering
windows of sleet.
the whisper of the ancient blue plain
beneath the scree
escapes even here, now,
from the painting

The Annual Shoestring Puppet Theatre Halloween Parade

Although it's already November, memories of Halloween are still resonant. Every year the Shoestring Puppet Theater hosts a Halloween Parade featuring drums and horns and puppets of various sizes. There's even a stiltwalker. People line the streets of the West End to see the little carnival go by and it's always great fun. This year was a gorgeous balmy evening with the usual consort of incredible costumes (including a zebra woman and an elaborately dressed Viking). I foisted a huge crow puppet with wings that flapped up and down as we walked along the leaf-strewn darkened streets. I forget from year to year how heavy and unwieldy the puppets can be, especially by the time the parade snakes from Pine Street to Emery Street to Taylor Street to Tyng Street and eventually up Brackett Street back to the puppet theatre. But we still had energy to do a wild puppet dance to the beat of accelerating drums in the parking lot at the end of the parade. Exhilarating, celebratory and great community fun, it's one of the highlights of the fall season.