NaPoWriMo Day 4: Depth

 
Day 4 of the NaPoWriMo challenge at www.napowrimo.net.
 
Prompt: In her poem, Living with a Painting, Denise Levertov describes just that. And that’s a pretty universal experience, isn’t it? It’s the rare human structure – be it a bedroom, kitchen, dentist’s office, or classroom – that doesn’t have art on its walls, even if it’s only the photos on a calendar. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem about living with a piece of art.
 
 
Depth
 
Inside & without,
exert & exhale,
alert in the delivery,
living the heat, the expel,
of light, emotive, vision,
mixed in a fistful of paint.
 
You step in,
walk on water, flow,
wade into depths of you
& spill your insides out,
sweep your arms in pigment,
become the palette knife
that drips your blood on canvas.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, April 24, 2025