​Cynghanedd After Bruegel, by Philip Carlsen

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, by Pieter Bruegel (Netherlands) 1560

​
​Cynghanedd After Bruegel
 
Icarus 
carouses
 
across 
a crass
 
indifferent sky--
and if he rants? cries?
 
Stunned bird—molting, 
sunburnt, melting
 
whiskered father’s 
wax and feathers--
 
           Noon nears.  
           No one hears.
 
The brig all rigged 
in Bruegel’s ragged
 
world,  
where old
 
flotsam, birds, 
flies in amber,
 
ploughman’s horses, 
plums and houses,
 
far red, 
furrowed
 
         fields,
         folds
 
of natal sea 
have naught to say.
 
Philip Carlsen

This poem first appeared in the “Deep Water” series in the Maine Sunday Telegram.

Philip Carlsen, a composer and cellist, was professor of music at the University of Maine at Farmington until his retirement in 2015. His poetry has appeared in the Found Poetry Review, Tower Journal, Off the Coast, and the Maine Sunday Telegram. He lives in South Portland, Maine, with his wife, the poet Jeri Theriault. More information about him and his compositions can be found at philcarlsen.com.