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Ekphrastacy: Members Show 2020, “Sunbeam on a Staircase”

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Sunbeam on a Staircase

by Marion Starling Boyer

after

Sunbeam on a Staircase

by Philip Bailin

 

In Provence, a warm breeze carries the fragrance

of lavender and daylight butters the hillsides, gleams

lemony in olive groves; even my glass of wine glows

rose gold, so of course Van Gogh painted his house,

 

the Cafe Terrace at Night, those swirling, pulsing

stars in citron, yellow ocher, cadmium and chrome

yellows. Sunlight sifts through the plane trees, dapples

the outdoor table where I sit thinking over a tale

 

about a village inn, somewhere in the south of France.

A stranger, a slender woman at the next table,

confided she knew of an inn with a stucco stairway

with a four-petaled design cut right through its outer wall

 

and, on some days, the sun casts the shape of a perfect

evening primrose onto the dim interior wall.

She raised her forefinger and said, It is not a fleur de lis,

as you might expect. She smiled and I returned her smile.

 

She gave me a sharp look, then rose, came close,

and rested her hand lightly on my arm.

It’s a blessing, she breathed, to climb those stairs

and pass through the sunbeam. In that moment,

 

the petals offer a true awakening of the heart.

The woman slipped a few coins beside her plate

and walked away. Now, I twist and twist my empty glass,

and watch its light glance and play across the table.

 

Philip Bailin, Artist: I am a published and award-winning creative photographer based in Shaker Heights,Ohio. My work has been featured in numerous regional and national juried exhibitions. Recently, some of my archival prints have been selected to be shown in the first annual Cleveland PhotoFest.  My subject matter varies from landscape to portraiture to abstraction and I work in both color and monochrome. While the digital camera is my medium, I believe that the image out of camera is only the first half of the artistic process. Post-processing in the “digital darkroom” is where the creative image is finalized to achieve my vision of what I saw through the lens.

 

Marion Starling Boyer, Poet: Marion Starling Boyer is author of four poetry collections: The Sea Was Never Far (Main Street Rag, 2019), The Clock of the Long Now (Mayapple Press, 2009); Composing the Rain, winner of Grayson Books 2014 Poetry Chapbook Competition; and Green (Finishing Line Press, 2003). ​After living and teaching in Kalamazoo, Michigan for many years, she and her husband now live in Twinsburg and she enjoys teaching writing workshops for Lit Cleveland and Lit Youngstown. Boyer is currently working on a poetry manuscript about Antarctic exploration.

 

 

Please enjoy this video for Ekphrastacy April 2020 in Response to Members Show 2020:

 

 

To learn more about our current exhibition, Members Show 2020, click here:

To learn more about our Literary programs, click here:

Most of Heights Arts’ programming is free! If you would like to show your support for our poetry programming you can text to give HERE, or learn the many ways you can support us HERE.

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