The Ekphrastic Review
  • Ekphrastic Journal
  • About
  • Give
    • Merch
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
  • Ebooks
  • Submit
  • Prizes
  • Ekphrastic Writing Challenges
  • TERcets Podcast
  • Writers
  • Contact

Still Life, Geranium, 1939, by Elizabeth Stoessl

12/17/2019

4 Comments

 
Picture
Still Life, Geranium, by Joseph Jacob Remlinger (USA) 1939

 Still Life, Geranium, 1939
     
Two perfect apples, stem side down,
poised on a cloth like a prayer shawl, its blue
repeated in the furled border of a curtain that screens
all but a hint of sunlight. One more lone apple teeters
at the opposite table-corner.
Of the geranium: one does not see its strangled roots,
but how could they not be, the plant heavy with leaves
too large for its stunted blooms, bursting
from its too-tight clay pot? The leaves throw shadows
onto grimy diamond-patterned wallpaper, and the whole
of the arrangement rests on a small square table.
The tabletop, for the sake of perspective, appears
to slant downward, atop three too-short legs resting on a corner
of worn Persian or copycat Linoleum. Surely in real life
the whole of it--scarf, apples, dirt--
would have slid in a mess to the floor.

The shawl, the curtain, same table, different fruit:
he uses them, in endless re-groupings, on other canvases.
Little do we know of Remlinger: shy man, pauper, 
sometime draftsman. The Pennsylvania Academy
said No to his offered bequest: No we cannot
give you wall space though your honours
​in life
 have been numerous. And so did others
say No.  Years later, in an attic,
a dealer said Yes: Yes I can move these.

Joseph Remlinger, with little hope in his life,
after death became part of "The New Hope School."
Like the precarious arrangement on the tabletop,
a reminder of the shiftiness of fame.

Look at it--on the white sun-shot wall
of a suburban kitchen,
the geranium is ablaze.

Elizabeth Stoessl
​
Elizabeth Stoessl lives in Portland, Oregon, after a long career as a public librarian in Arlington, Virginia. She is the owner of this painting, acquired from an art dealer in Pennsylvania. Her poetry has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Measure, Poetica, VoiceCatcher, Sow's Ear Poetry Review, and the anthology Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California.
4 Comments
Jim Hannon
12/17/2019 09:35:35 pm

Love this. Tried to click like but noting happened. The shiftiness of applause

Reply
Elizabeth Stoessl
12/19/2019 01:24:50 pm

Thanks for trying!

Reply
Carole Mertz
12/18/2019 04:00:28 pm

I liked your friendly assessment, Elizabeth, which then became more satisfying as you wrote about the No's and then the Yes, and that the painting became yours. Born in Pennsylvania, I appreciated your reference to The New Hope School and the PA Academy.

Reply
Elizabeth Stoessl
12/19/2019 01:23:40 pm

Thanks, Carole. New Hope was a favorite destination when I lived back east

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    The Ekphrastic Review
    Picture

    ​​Find a writer, artist, or poem, etc. by searching here:
    PLEASE SUPPORT US
    Join us on FB and Twitter!
    Picture



    ​
    ​Archives
    ​

    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015

    Lorette C. Luzajic theekphrasticreview@gmail.com 

  • Ekphrastic Journal
  • About
  • Give
    • Merch
  • Book Shelf
    • Ekphrastic Book Shelf
    • Contributors' Book Shelf
  • Ebooks
  • Submit
  • Prizes
  • Ekphrastic Writing Challenges
  • TERcets Podcast
  • Writers
  • Contact