I’ve been searching for a reason to keep painting. I found Leslie Saeta’s 30 in 30 challenge and it has given me some steam. Happy New Year to all.
Edit:Last year I learned a new word, “Ekphrastic.” My friend Valerie Savarie, an altered-book artist, put together an exhibit with that title in which poets responded to works of visual art with their literary works, then read their poems aloud at the opening reception.
Yesterday, I was thrilled to read poet Ken Smith’s “Clown College Failure,” sparked by his looking at this painting.
Clown College Failure
At the end he had that unconvincing smile, maybe half a tube
Of grease paint, one green shirt with matching pants, a box
Of small hats with massive wigs, and a keen sense of the shocks
That flesh is heir to. On the wide college lawn, after he begged
The dean of clowns for another chance to play the hapless rube,
The world said the role is yours and the world has not reneged.
Ken is a writer and English professor living in South Bend, Indiana.
Check out his Twitter feed here, and listen to him read his Michiana Chronicles essays here.
Thank you for the ekphrasis, Ken!
Paint Fumes 