Tuesday, April 19, 2016

ARTSPEAK! 2016: Poem #19 "Math Lesson (from the Garden)"

Hello, and welcome to day 19 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 ArtPlease join me, if you feel so inspired!

But first, please visit my partner-in-poetry Charles at Poetry Time 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:

"Gardening Basics" after The Watering Can/Emblems: the Garden by Roger de La Fresnaye
"Mary in the Garden" after Reading in the Garden by Pompeo Mariani
"This Wheelbarrow" after A Woman Emptying a Wheelbarrow by Camille Pissarro
"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
"Triolet for Planting Day" after The Artist's Garden at Eragny by Camille Pissarro

Today's poem is after a van Gogh piece. I'm traveling (hello, Houston! hello, TLA!), so not a lot of time to devote... which brought me to a closer look at the painting itself. What's there? How many? That's how I arrived at a math poem of sorts.


Math Lesson (from the Garden)

It takes
two blue
gloves

plus one
wicker
basket

to hold
nine
just-plucked

suns.


2 comments:

  1. How DO you do it, Irene? So much with so few words, always. I am hopeful for this spring that has finally arrived in Western New York. Excited to see you tomorrow too! xx

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  2. I am swooning over this, Irene! (And also asking Amy's question.) Stay safe & dry in Houston!

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