 The Painter’s Father, by Albrecht Dürer (Germany) 1497 To Laugh or Smile Unbidden What is this stillness? It is art. The man is Dürer’s father, but it’s also true that he is pure geometry, a mass of black and orange where each ridge and pouch of flesh, each strand of greying hair, each eye lets neck and face reflect the brown and orange of coat and field, the black of shirt and cap. He is a sea of echoes. There is not a lot of detail to distract the mind, just Father on an orange field – more paint than curtain. And his eye has done its share of the day’s work. The mouth here is alert, the jaw is set. The head turns to the left, the sitter looks our way. It’s not a face to laugh or smile unbidden, though I won’t call it unkindly. Five years after this, the man had died. Yet here he lives for us. Do we need more than this to make a painting? More glamour? More event? Or is it so that stillness draws us in, as if a bloke chose quiet over noise? And Dürer has removed from us even the sitter’s hands, he’s very confident. What we don’t see is where this art lies: what is taken out. It’s been five hundred years since first the paint went on this canvas, that time Dürer’s dad sat for the painter. He will not speak up, nor lift a finger. In the flux of time, the generations have expressed themselves – they’ve moved about. Not this man, in his coat. John Claiborne Isbell Since 2016, various MSS of John’s have placed as finalist or semifinalist for The Washington Prize (three times), The Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes (twice), the Elixir Press 19th Annual Poetry Award, The Gival Press Poetry Award, the 2020 Able Muse Book Award (twice) and the 2020 Richard Snyder Publication Prize. John published his first book of poetry, Allegro, in 2018, and has published in Poetry Durham, threecandles.org, the Jewish Post & Opinion, Snakeskin, and The Ekphrastic Review. He has published books with Oxford and with Cambridge University Press and appeared in Who’s Who in the World. He also once represented France in the European Ultimate Frisbee Championships. He retired this summer from The University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, where he taught French and German. His wife continues to teach languages there.
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 Landscape with Rye Field, Gjern, by Ejnar Nielsen (Denmark) 1898. Editorial apologies that we were unable to find a higher resolution image to show. Grain A tsunami of golden grain overwhelms me, spilling my heart across rolling green hills. Why did it take so many years to see how easily I can feed the land with myself? Bury me as a lonesome tree in the bowl of possibility. Bury me so that the bluest skies are clenched in the teeth of the tallest grasses. Bury me under every swelling tongue. The grain scratches its way skyward, filling the window of my body. Nothing seems to stop it. Dane Hamann Dane Hamann works as an editor for a textbook publisher in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Northwestern University and later served as the poetry editor of TriQuarterly for over five years. His chapbook Q&A was published by Sutra Press and his micro-chapbooks have been included in multiple Ghost City Press Summer Series. His poetry collection, A Thistle Stuck in the Throat of the Sun, was recently published by Kelsay Books.  Untitled, by Zdzisław Beksiński (Poland) c. 1980s? The Cost of Stone A lone cathedral stands before me, Enslaving my gaze. It glows with the ghastly red of rust… Or rather, I wish it was rust, for its hue Is of a far more vile scarlet. The crimson of bleeding bodies, Flayed raw from the shrapnel of M24s. The masses believe this cruel construct is of brick and mortar. It is not. It is of unfortunate men. Whose flesh and bone was deemed cheaper Then the red clay of the earth. Mark Latif Mark Latif: "I was Born in Egypt in 2002, and lived there for 11 years until I moved to America in early 2014. I had generally lived a peaceful and enjoyable life despite my diagnosis of hemophilia. I am currently a college freshman studying in the hopes of one day becoming a doctor specializing in blood diseases, just like the ones who help me with my condition." |
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