The Realist Tutors his Eager Scholar, by ​Kelly Ann Ellis

The Gust of Wind, by Gustave Courbet (France) 1865

The Realist Tutors his Eager Scholar

But you talk like a Romantic. 
It is a "gust" not a "thrust" of wind. 
There is no intent. Nature is indifferent. 
Lightning lights on the highest point, the most 
accessible target in an open field. This verdant 
green evokes the O of a childish ego, hoodwinked 
by transcendental hoodoo, unaware that feelings 
are negligible. Trees don’t fight or submit to fate,
skies don't weep, nor do storms ravish innocence. 
Pods fall, seeds spill against law or will. No need 
wonder about the drought before or after that shout 
of thunder, months of whispers, insidious, rasping, 
Will it ever rain again? 
 
Cruelty is man's domain. It requires effort, forethought, 
makes us the animal-namers, nature-rulers. Still, you ask, 
Why paint? If I am right, why commemorate something so 
fleeting, signifying nothing? I don't concede the point. Art
stokes our illusion of control--that's the truth about beauty. 
Storms happen sans intention; we claim them for reflection.
Such is the nonsense of romance. Forgive—or not—my rant:
It is an infant’s sensitivity, my dear, though a most endearing 
flaw, your headstrong inability to process indifference.

​Kelly Ann Ellis

This poem was first published in Friendswood Library's Ekphrastic Poetry Festival Anthology 2023.

​Kelly Ann Ellis holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Houston, where she also taught for over a decade. A member of the critique group Poets in the Loop, she is the co-founder of hotpoet, Inc. and the managing editor of Equinox. Her poetry, which has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, was featured in the REELpoetry festival for three years consecutive years and showcased in the Houston Fringe Festival in 2019. She was twice nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2020, and her poetry collection, The Hungry Ghost Diner, was published by Lamar University Literary Press in 2023.