ARTSPEAK! 2016: Poem #16 "This Wheelbarrow"

Hello, and welcome to day 16 of my National Poetry Month poem-a-day-project ARTSPEAK! in which I respond to images found in the online collections at the National Gallery of Art. Please join me, if you feel so inspired!

Also, be sure and visit Violet Nesdoly to see how our Progressive Poem is progressing!

This year's ARTSPEAK! theme is "Plant. Grow Eat." It was inspired by the release of my latest book FRESH DELICIOUS: Poems from the Farmers' Market.

Here are the poems so far:

"A Dream of Sheep" after Warm Afternoon by Winslow Homer
"Harvest" after The Last Days of Harvest by Winslow Homer
"Anticipation (in the Garden) after George Moore in the Artist's Garden by Edouard Manet
"Gathering Fruit" after Gathering Fruit by Mary Cassatt
"Bread's Lament" after Boy with Basket of Fruit by an unknown American artist
"After the Fire" after Ruined Farm by Hubert Robert
"Cow at the Gate" after Landscape with Open Gate by Pieter Molijin
"I Am the Plate" after Still Life with Milk Jug and Fruit by Paul Cezanne
"Courtship (According to the Cat)" by Winslow Homer
"Courage" after Planting Corn by Stanley Mazur
"Orchard Barber Shop" after Gardener Pruning a Tree by Jacques Callot
"Gardener's Companion" after The Watering Can by Georges Seurat

"Man, Reading" after Denoisel Reading in the Garden by James Tissot

"At the Vegetable Market" after Vegetable Market at Pontoise by Camille Pissarro

"Triolet for Planting Day" after The Artist's Garden at Eragny by Camille Pissarro

I selected today's piece because it made me think of that famous Red Wheelbarrow. What new could I say about a wheelbarrow? I don't know, but there's something so empowering about a woman in the garden, using the tools to work the land... so my poem kind of turned into an empowerment piece.

This Wheelbarrow

It could be any color,

this wheelbarrow

that rolls with me

across the mornings

of whack and weed

and shuck.

Sometimes we both

get stuck –

I blow the hair

out of my eyes

and we sit

together for a while

under the hickory tree.

Soon a breeze lifts

my bonnet

and the wheels

shift once again,

each squeal and groan

an affirmation:

you can do it,

yes, you can.

- Irene Latham

Listen to the poem on Soundcloud!