Enter, by Rachel Carney

Rocky Wooded Landscape with Rustic Lovers, Herdsman and Cows, by Thomas Gainsborough (England) 1773

​​Enter

Imagine[1]
 
Imagine[2]
 
Imagine[3]
 
Imagine[4]
 
Imagine[5]





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[1] you are an artist contemplating a rocky landscape.
[2] what it would look like if you added three brown cows, a pair of rustic lovers, a shepherd with his crook, some distant sheep.
[3] you are one of those lovers, dropped without warning, into a rocky landscape, in rustic clothing, left there to discover each other, to kiss each other in full view.
[4] you are that rocky landscape, sucked onto a canvas with oils, streaked with clouds and cobalt blue.
[5] yourself open, inside that blue. Swim through the depth of it, to its edge, and climb out, dripping, on a rocky shore, where you will encounter the stroke of a brush, a pulse of sun, the quiet murmur of a dying world.
 
Rachel Carney 

Rachel Carney is a writer and academic based in Cardiff in the UK. Her poems, reviews and articles have been published in numerous magazines including Poetry Wales and Anthropocene. Her debut collection Octopus Mind was selected as one of The Guardian’s Best Poetry Books of 2023 and is published by Seren Books. She recently completed a PhD, examining how ekphrastic poetry can help visitors to engage with art in museums. Find out more on her blog – www.createdtoread.com