ARTSPEAK! Portraits poem "Speaking of the Weather"

Hello and Happy National Poetry Month! Here it is, day 9 of ARTSPEAK!: Portraits, my National Poetry Month poem-a-day project, during which I am looking, listening with my spirit ear, and asking these subject to share with me their secrets.

But first: be sure to check out Linda's line of our 2017 Progressive Poem over at TeacherDance. I love how our poem is progressing!

Here are the ARTSPEAK! Portraits poems so far:

8. "Happiness" after Self-Portrait with Straw Hat by Elisabeth Vigee le Brun

7. "Virginia, Sitting for a Portrait" after Portrait of Virginia (Little Girl) by Frida Kahlo

6. "Paint-by-Number" after Portrait of a Woman by Alexei von Jawlensky

4. "I Am" after The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas by George Catlin

3. "What If?" after Portrait of Camille Roulin by Vincent van Gogh

2. "The Lady Confesses" after Portrait of a Lady with Mask and Cherries by Benjamin Wilson

1. "Mona Lisa in Love" after Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Today I have a profile of a woman by Japanese artist Fujishima Takeji. I was drawn to her strength, and also to her luminance. Here's what she told me:

Speaking of the Weather

- after “Profile of a Woman” by Fujishima Takeji

Should you compare me

to a rocky mountain

I would say,

I, too, have faced

cruel winds

and relentless rain,

I, too, know the sun's

greedy gaze,

and how it feels

to oh so slowly

crumble.

Yet each night

when that garden

of stars

blooms and bears fruit,

I am first to call it
light.

- Irene Latham

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