From Mirror to Ice, by Anna Powell

From Mirror to Ice

The mirror drank my soul, left me deep shade
a shadow-doubled silhouette-self
honed down to mere abstracted gaze
while other me is lost 
and can’t look back
as vampire darkness fastens on his face

and in the frozen lake he waits 
to drain me of myself
congeal hot blood to ice
submerge my heart, numb pain
and chill my grief to tear-wet trace
no daylight ever vapours into steam
no sunshine gently dries

Anna Powell

This poem was inspired by this artwork: Ben Nicholson, photo by John Humphrey Spender (England) 1936. Click here to view.

Anna is a retired scholar and lecturer in Literature, Film and Critical Theory (Manchester Metropolitan University). She lives on Anglesey/Ynys Môn where she writes and performs poetry. Anna collaborates in local experimental arts projects and festivals and runs evening classes. She studied at the Poetry School and has published in Lucent Dreaming and Gwrthryfel/Uprising: an anthology of radical poetry. Her ekphrastic poems are inspired by the possibilities of direct sensory and imaginative connections between viewer and art work. Anna has a special interest in Surrealist practice and theory and has recently written experimental sound poetry that reconnects and extends sensory limitations, accessing unconscious networks. This work is in performance with a group of visual artists, musicians and dancers.