Poetry After Käthe Kollwitz, by Sharon Phillips

Self-Portrait, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1889

​All Dressed Up

I recall her as one of my students
dashing to the shop for more turps,
wearing a dirty painter’s smock
and grinning at people who grumbled
as she ran past. Women painters. 
Whatever next? Bad as actresses.

They weren’t far wrong. She loved
to disguise herself in fancy dress,
as anything but a good Prussian girl.
Best of all was the time she played
the part of a half-pissed barmaid 
and not a single person knew her.

That boldness showed in her work .
Isn’t it clear in this self-portrait?
Shoulders squared, she’s wearing
a professor’s frock coat; one hand 
grasps a lapel; one eyebrow raised,
she’s asking herself what next?
​

Self-Portrait Seated at a Table, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1893

Death, sheet 2 of A Weavers’ Revolt, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1893-7

Working from Home

At one end of the dining table
I made space for ink and acid,
pens and copper plates, wax
and needles, blocks of paper.

I planned work around meals

until the baby came. His needs
took up so much of my day
I had none left for myself 
so when I started this picture

my ideas were a constant itch:

marks I could make, to show 
death’s bony fingers reaching
for a mother, how candlelight
might shine on her thin face.

I fitted the work in late at night,

oil lamp radiant, baby asleep, 
the city’s bustle stilled to the clop
of a cab-horse, a distant bark,
the crack of wood in my stove.
​

Woman with Orange, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1901

Woman with Orange

I draw her face
gleaming 
in the lamplight,

mantle and shade
both white 
in umber darkness;

decide if her eyes 
should be unfocussed 
or gaze downcast;

think how to show
that an orange's scent
is filling the room

as stifling warmth
engulfs her.
​

Pair of Lovers Huddling Against Each Other, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1909/10

Lovescene 1, by Käthe Kollwitz (Germany) 1909/1910

Love Scenes
i.m. Käthe Kollwitz and Hugo Heller

what did you mean 
when you wrote about 
your dream of him

it was lebhaft
you said und schön

were your bodies
tautening to climax
each chasing
its own pleasure

or were you folded
into each other

so quiet and close
his breath stirred
a lock of your hair

Sharon Phillips
​
Sharon Phillips started writing poems when she retired from her career in education. Since then, her work has appeared in many print and online journals and anthologies, including Places of Poetry, Poetry Birmingham, Raceme, About Larkin, The Poetry Society Newsletter, Atrium, The Clearing, One Hand Clapping, Ink Sweat and Tears, The High Window and previously in The Ekphrastic Review.