Epistemology of a Photograph A small boy sprints into foam on Galway Bay. A splash leaps from his planted foot; his heel settles toward Earth’s mantle; wet sand worms upward through his toes. His leading leg is stilled above a swell, toes curled and poised, shortly to try the easy surf in a paroxysm of play. His reflection stains the thin retreating sea. His arms remain straight and stiff, and his hands tightly fisted as if to hold for now anyway the water-addled kid-joy of running. One arm points back toward boulders, taupe sand, maybe sisters, I cannot say. His eyes are down, but something is beyond. I think he slips an outward look, glimpses Granny. Next, swells approach a shore not seen. Spray, a still pool, withdrawing froth. A jetty tapers and holds these well enunciated waves away from foreshortened waters, distant houses, clouds riding hills as grey and blue as the bay. Outside the frame Granny watches, smiles praise, surely thinking of how he is right now. The sea laps at her knees and, leaning toward the boy, her eyes may let memory float to when she too leapt into waters too wide for imagination or when his father frolicked within her ken in frigid waves, happy and safe. Even farther out, almost where the sea is wild and near to buoys that mark…something three old men swim across the bay, two miles of reach and pull, challenge and conquest, from promontory to promontory. Their white heads switch and bob, profiled against the sky. Like Granny they must be barrel-bellied. Unlike Granny they’re implicated by the freely playing child not at all. H. G. Rogers This poem was presented and read in 2020 at the Poetry Circle of the Yeats Center in Sligo, Ireland. H. G. Rogers earned a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Texas–Austin and, as to be expected, served a full military career. He later became a corporate trainer, a leadership consultant, and a financial advisor. He is currently seeking representation for a literary novel. He lives in Northwest Arkansas.
3 Comments
Bonnie Seabright
2/19/2022 08:20:07 pm
Great job Buddy,
Reply
Chuck Janzen
4/13/2022 12:19:30 pm
Enjoyable poem. I can see, feel, smell, and taste the salty water and wish a bit I still had the energy of a boy.
Reply
Tim McGinn
4/26/2022 03:01:54 pm
I showed this poem and photo to my students this week as inspiration. Their current assignment is ekphrastic poems in response to fine art from the MoMA web site.
Reply
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
The Ekphrastic Review
COOKIES/PRIVACY
This site uses cookies. Continuing here means you consent. Thank you. Join us: Facebook and Bluesky
February 2025
|