Painters and Poets

PAINTERS AND POETS

Edward Hopper lived in my world,

He and Andrew Wyeth, too.

Stark, dark and bare to the bones.

No pretentious guile within them,

Just lonely truth in the shadows.

Nighthawks and Yellow Labs

Cornered in expectations.

Naked women with corn silk hair

Or questioning eyes,

In poses of expressionless emotion.

Every person is a solitary figure

In the geometry of the city

Or the vastness of the country field.

Rooms are claustrophobic prisons

Streets are exitless exiles of night.

John Donne was not right at all,

Every man is an island

That can never be explored.

Our shoreline might touch the sea of humanity

But our heart is a jungle impenetrable.

Like the ladies in the window light,

The woman of the “Morning Sun”

Staring straight into the view

Or the one of “Lovers” turned away

Every man’s mind is a mystery.

Illustrations:  “Morning Sun” by Edward Hopper

“Lovers” by Andrew Wyeth