 Model's Rest, by Jose Ferraz de Almeida Junior (Brazil) 1882 An Old Tune Maria Laura do Amaral Gurgel slips out of her lover’s mind abruptly, as the burden of his work permits a lull. He must meet her later at their hotel. But sitting, smoking and joking with Euterpe, between long sessions, suits him all too well. They must not overdo such intervals, when the muse touches an old tune superbly, taking her fingers for a lively stroll up and down the scale of his approval. The mandolin vibrates, and joins in warmly. . . . Maria Laura do Amaral Gurgel, wife of the painter’s cousin, never shall touch anything but Haydn, rather primly, and never hears of this remote betrayal. When, seventeen years on, her husband kills her lover, at that same Hotel Central, she has to go on living. In the gallery, they mourn him as the finest in all Brazil. Michael Caines Michael Caines was longlisted for this year's National Poetry Competition and highly commended in the Sentinel Literary Quarterly competition for winter 2019 ** Painting Rest He’s a young man with a vision into the future, Almeida paints himself an old man into the corner, colors immerse with a certain darkness, but tender light and shadow falls on his model. He loves her pose and applauds her performance, which might extend beyond repertoire, perhaps this is why she is resting. He is sober and realistic, committed to her description, and the routine of the everyday life of an artist, his moments of intimacy, details of living even well into the future. There’s no interest in painting historical subjects or even Biblical ones unless they have that compelling allure of Eve. He frames himself in the recesses of empathy with that look of lust. His thoughts spiral like smoke from a cigarette while looking at the nude with approval. Ten years later, he fancies young Maria Laura, his cousin’s wife, painting her at her wedding. The shape of her head, and her hair, unmistakenly familiar, similar to the nude he lusted years earlier, and she, Maria, with that hopeless family arrangement with a Sampaio, the man who doesn’t show affection as he does the whores, falls in love with the older Almeida. It is a betrayal by love letters. Enraged, Sampaio defends his name by getting rid of his wife and sticking a knife into the painter’s collar bone, saying, I wash honour with blood. While bleeding out, Almeida Júnior says I am dead, but what an ungrateful man. No doubt referring to Sampaio’s unappreciativeness for his wife who is now holding Almeida slumped in the streets as he enters rest, not quite the old man he imagined but one painted into a corner with a certain darkness, a tender light and shadow falling on Maria. He loves her. John C. Mannone John C. Mannone has poems appearing in North Dakota Quarterly, Le Menteur, Blue Fifth Review, Poetry South, Baltimore Review, 2020 Antarctic Poetry Exhibition, and others. His poetry won the Impressions of Appalachia Creative Arts Contest (2020). He was awarded a Jean Ritchie Fellowship (2017) in Appalachian literature and served as celebrity judge for the National Federation of State Poetry Societies (2018). His latest collection, Flux Lines: The Intersection of Science, Love, and Poetry, is forthcoming from Linnet’s Wings Press (2020). He edits poetry for Abyss & Apex and other journals. A retired physics professor, he lives near Knoxville, Tennessee. ** Um Interlúdio Perhaps his smile belies his dark intent, eyes seeming to rest too long, or maybe only innocence, listening as she practices her chords, needed to counterbalance stillness. He smokes, the picture of nonchalance; she turns toward him at ease. A crack revealed, smiles as the draping drops, reveals the voyeur captured in the trap of paint – and aren’t we all, enraptured, as the artist shows what has been unseen, unable to avert our eyes in the contrivance of the mise-en-scéne? Betsy Mars Betsy Mars is a poet, photographer, and occasional publisher. She founded Kingly Street Press and released her first anthology, Unsheathed: 24 Contemporary Poets Take Up the Knife,in October 2019. A second anthology, entitled Floored, is in the works and expected to be out later this summer. Her work has recently appeared in The Blue Nib, Live Encounters, and The New Verse News. Her chapbook, Alinea, was published in January 2019. In the Muddle of the Night, with Alan Walowitz, is coming soon from Arroyo Seco Press. ** A Model’s Song Singing At the piano After a long day Of sitting still I hunger to know The stories Of your secrets Across the lands Of colour in your head And the gone days Of your vision As I walk with you Through the lean times Of suffering Beneath your frail existence Awash in the essence Of our laughter Beyond the fractures In the marrow Of our fading art John Drudge John is a social worker working in the field of disability management and holds degrees in social work, rehabilitation services, and psychology. He is the author of two books of poetry: March, and The Seasons of Us (both published in 2019). His work has appeared widely in literary journals, magazines, and anthologies internationally. John is also a Pushcart Prize nominee and lives in Caledon Ontario, Canada with his wife and two children. ** If Only I could capture the form, the tone, all that flows from your fingers, my own would grace the canvas with the beauty before me. Poised in that moment between notes, the keys wait for your touch as the canvas waits to know the true art of the moment. Ken Gierke Ken Gierke is a retired truck driver who enjoys kayaking and photography, but writing poetry brings him the most satisfaction. Primarily free verse and haiku, his poetry has appeared at The Ekphrastic Review, Amethyst Review, Vita Brevis, Eunoia Review, and formidable woman sanctuary, as well as at Tuck Magazine, and can be seen on his blog: https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com. ** Model’s Rest Resting her fingers on black and white piano keys a naked woman on a stool asks her companion to open a window as he lights the cigarette between his lips. She had imagined being his model, lazy afternoons under his scrutiny— and afterwards, when he’d finished with the day’s grubby paintwork, he’d turn from her unfinished portrait, wash his tender hands and suggest they share a simple meal, a glass or two of wine. Nothing like that happened. Instead, he laboured for hours, hardly talking, while she perched on a hard, wobbly seat. She had been mesmerized by his studio, the artfully placed brass and pewter pots, satin drapery, piles of finger-worn sheet music and a rumpled handwoven rug; and when she grew bored of staring at flower patterned plates, she watched him, and her mind painted his portrait. It is this image she remembers now, the two of them, side by side, at rest, him wearing his shabby artist’s smock and leather slippers, his silly woollen hat, and in his eyes a look of gratefulness. David Belcher David Belcher is aged over 50, he lives on the north coast of Wales, and his most recent work has appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, Ink Sweat and Tears and Right Hand Pointing. David reads and writes poetry for enjoyment, and to preserve his sanity. ** I Explain Some Oleanders You ask. where are the oleanders? And the hot summer suns? And the night, empty streets his words filling them with promises? I’ll tell you all that happened. I stayed in Cefalù on Sicily island, our hotel was Santa Lucia by the Tyrrhenian Sea the hotel with tarantella music. From there you could look out over shop shutters across the town. Lacuna that lulled the naïve oleander trees unrested, filled with chimera stone tiles of a dream fugue, that would entwine themselves with my memories. And from then on the mythmaking shilling screenplays and from then on rhyme and lyrical vagaries. And one morning all that was repossessed lime washed walls one morning tinted taupe grey a walled garden remembers an ochre yellow house, remembers children, remembers his fists steep stairway to the white sand beach I have seen the sea grasses. And you ask, why did you stay? Come and see the moon. Come and see the oleanders. Ilona Martonfi Ilona Martonfi is an editor, poet, curator, advocate and activist. Author of four poetry books, the most recent collection is Salt Bride (Inanna, 2019). Forthcoming, The Tempest (Inanna, 2021). Writes in journals, anthologies, and six chapbooks. Her poem “Dachau on a Rainy Day” was nominated for the 2018 Pushcart Prize. Artistic director of Visual Arts Centre Reading Series and Argo Bookshop Reading Series. QWF 2010 Community Award. ** The Model’s Particularity To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. — John Berger, Ways of Seeing She sits on the piano bench nonchalantly totally at ease in her body and with him, the artist who paints her naked. But not as a nude. There is complicity in how she is portrayed, a tenderness perhaps that allows them to sit with mutual comfort in each other’s presence. As unconcerned as if they sat at an elegant tea eating cucumber and watercress, Victoria sponge. The spread of her arms and placement of her hands convince me she could play the scores balanced on the stand. She knows herself as an individual, with talents. For him, she’s a woman with her own particularity. Not Aphrodite or Helen, not Ophelia lying drowned among the reeds. And he is not Odysseus or Paris or even Hamlet. In the style of the day, he can sit with a naked woman, discuss music, listen as she plays, seated on luxurious fabric in loose Turkish pants, her back to the viewer. Is there a hint of exoticism in the room’s furnishings that he projects onto her? Piano, cloisonné vases, mandolin? The golden cloak she has shed like an outer skin? The mystery, the titillation is the painter’s alone. He has made her the center of his rapt contemplation. Sandi Stromberg Sandi Stromberg recently had a poem about her days in the Netherlands translated into Dutch and published with the original and photos in Brabant Cultureel, a well-respected online arts and culture journal. She continues to delight in the biweekly challenges presented by The Ekphrastic Review. ** Interlude for Lorette C. Luzajic & Sukaina Fatima I In the foreground —ruled by the Chinese-gold silk sheet, grass-green fat pot, blood-red and Egyptian-blue carpet knots, hazel-brown wood, shimmering bronze surahi, et alia-- the paleness of my skin is only rendered further paler. But I permit —wrapped in the rainbow dhoti, affixed to the stool-- my fingers to fiddle with the black and white keys in a row on the Victorian style piano, and stir up a cacophony of a few sound waves in an effort to make my background known. The porcelain plates —affixed to the wall at 900 right above my head-- watch over me as the omnipresent Eye of Horus, and the gold-plated candle stands on either side of the piano, like the Kiraman Katibin—Raqib and Atid—supervise me, as I turn to the choreographer of colours for an acknowledgment and approval. II The bearded choreographer —with a Clergyman’s hat and dressed in an attire that resembles that of a Father’s, ready to proceed to hearing a confession, than that of a Michelangelo’s in the streets of Florence-- nods his head and applauds: “You remind me of my youth! We shall continue with our choir: you, with your head, torso and limbs; I, with the magic wand that this paint brush is.” Saad Ali 1. Surahi = an Indian pot which is usually used to store water, alcohol and other drinkable liquids. 2. Dhoti = a traditional Indian trouser—usually made of cotton or linen. 3. In the Islamic theology, the Kiraman Katibin, i.e. Honourable Scribes, are namely Raqib and Atid, who are appointed by God to sit on the right and left shoulder of a person in order to record every good and bad dead of the person for the Final Judgement by God on the Day of Judgement. Saad Ali (b. 1980 C.E. in Okara, Pakistan) has been brought up in the UK and Pakistan. He holds a BSc and an MSc in Management from the University of Leicester, UK. He is an existential philosopher-poet. Ali has authored four books of poetry i.e. Ephemeral Echoes (AuthorHouse, 2018), Metamorphoses: Poetic Discourses (AuthorHouse, 2019), Ekphrases: Book One (AuthorHouse, 2020), and Prose Poems: Βιβλίο Άλφα (AuthorHouse, 2020). By profession, he is a Lecturer, Consultant, and Trainer/Mentor. Some of his influences include: Vyasa, Homer, Ovid, Attar, Rumi, Nietzsche, and Tagore. To learn more about his work, please visit www.saadalipoetry.com.  Get your copy of the ebook The Ekphrastic World today!
A curated collection of 60 paintings and artworks from all over the world, this is the ultimate book of ekphrastic prompts. Your purchase supports The Ekphrastic Review on its fifth anniversary! It also qualifies you to enter 15 poems or five stories or essays, inspired by the artworks inside, for our upcoming anniversary anthology. (Submissions due November 1.) Click here to purchase. Also available is Lorette's new collection of ekphrastic prose poems in ebook form, and Fifty Ekphrastic Approaches. THANK YOU to everyone who has supported the Review by purchasing this ebook! We are most grateful, and look forward to your ekphrastic writing submissions.
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