Ipicked one of my own poems this time, because I’m happy about the release of my new book and wanted to give you a taste. This poem is ekphrastic. That’s when some other art form, a painting, a photo, a ballet, etc., makes you want to write a poem about it, respond to it. Your response doesn’t have to be a poem, but sometimes it is.

There’s often a story that you tell yourself when you look at a piece of art closely. You may be imagining the emotions in the story, and also it may be your own emotions that are triggered. Here there is a photo of two old men, stopping to talk. I don’t know where I saw the photo, but something caught me about it. I found myself reading into it all sorts of things. Probably I was reading my own feelings: I find something mysterious about old men in general. M

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