EKPHRASIS : Art Describing Art : 2015
California Writers Club, Mendocino Branch : A Collaboration : Artists Co-Op of Mendocino
Writers Responding to Visual Artworks
Henri Bensussen “Arrested Motion”
Responded to visual artwork by
Jessica Jade Norris “Wading and Waiting”
Arrested Motion: Sandpiper in the Sea of Galilee--
Why is it here? Shouldn’t it be . . . elsewhere?
Bird stands with one leg held halfway up
as if uncertain where to put it next,
maybe thinking of a nap, tucking head deep
into feathers warmed by a wing.
Boxed in and framed
in black and white in a colorless world,
no clues to future or past, it stays motionless
against every law of physics and nature.
Reminds me of a candy box saved for mementos:
opened—lingering odors of chocolate and a scene
of snowy castles in Germany, so far from our frozen
sandpiper’s pipe dream of an action.
Alone, none there to give direction
sleepy target for a hawk. If it sensed danger could it imagine movement
which direction to go?
Why is it here? Shouldn’t it be . . . elsewhere?
Bird stands with one leg held halfway up
as if uncertain where to put it next,
maybe thinking of a nap, tucking head deep
into feathers warmed by a wing.
Boxed in and framed
in black and white in a colorless world,
no clues to future or past, it stays motionless
against every law of physics and nature.
Reminds me of a candy box saved for mementos:
opened—lingering odors of chocolate and a scene
of snowy castles in Germany, so far from our frozen
sandpiper’s pipe dream of an action.
Alone, none there to give direction
sleepy target for a hawk. If it sensed danger could it imagine movement
which direction to go?
