Friday, March 10, 2017

Kit Kelen - ekphrastics - three Goyas


Goya's 'Dos Vieijos Comiendo'

the toothless
at their meal
all skull
and spoon

greedy to cram
life's last
in maw

long life!
that favourite curse
of the young

can sin
be as guilty
as we are?

one codger points
towards some spectacle

the unseen is an accusation

the judgement is no distance at all
judgement is upon us









Goya's 'Perro Semihundido'/'Drowning Dog'

this painting has many names
none of them given by Goya
let's say though that the dog is to drown
for the sake of not argument
to be drowned in strong sunshine
of a darkness – gold

but that nose is not yet under
not all these years will drown the dog
eyes must grieve for something gone
belonging to the one that's loved

the sky is gold
the water gold

she would be apt to any task
swim any given sea
if we only knew a name to call

something still to be retrieved 







 

Goya's 'Distasters of War'
the dead are a field in themselves
the fresh mown
have the future spread over them
not evenly though
you couldn't predict
and there are the living
the well, the ill
all attitude
some scratch at the sky
some cast eyes down
to keep going
it could go on for a while
how precious every mother's son
attired in all the battle's soot
and with both boots still on

2 comments:

  1. Erudite piece(s) so well together.
    Three classic modes here speak of this woe de Goya

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  2. ô! waouh! I'm delighted to read something "different", though it sounds perfectly "yourself" Kit! And you go depthward and beyond the painting itself to find Goya's eyes and sensitivity, and you give him your voice. Very nice indeed!

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