THROWBACK THURSDAY: Selections by Alarie Tennille

Hello, TER friends. I imagine most of you agree with me, that our two moderate seasons are your favorites. Maybe not if you’re into winter or summer sports or perhaps you prefer summer because you aren’t in school. 
 
I love autumn for its memories and nostalgia, for the changing of the leaves and the feeling of gratitude that continues to build toward Thanksgiving. Yet it can also make me melancholy. We poets are like that. I hope you drop by TER’s website from time to time to look back at the nine years of expanding treasures. Here are a few poems I especially admire that touch readers with sadness, joy, nostalgia, or a blend. This first poem breaks my heart with its mix of tenderness, guilt, and loss. I’ll try to blend in some more celebratory choices, too. 

Alarie Tennille
 
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The Deer, by Lynn Pattison

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/the-deer-by-lynn-pattison

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These next two selections throw in some extra tips on how to write to art.

How to Remember, by Todd Campbell

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/how-to-remember-by-todd-campbell

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Autumn Grasses in Moonlight, by John Tessitore

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/autumn-grasses-in-moonlight-by-john-tessitore

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I loved seeing that George Franklin practices law. It’s an attorney’s gift to piece together what has not been said, to imagine what might change our verdict.

What Brueghel Might Have Painted But Did Not, by George Franklin

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/what-brueghel-might-have-painted-but-did-not-by-george-franklin

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October blue skies are definitely a wonder. But isn’t it a surprise when the simplest thing, like this colour swatch by Yves Klein, somehow holds us enthralled, just as the painter was?

“He painted blue and it didn’t mean anything which felt like a relief after so much caring and that’s / what he probably liked best about it.”

Of course, Meg Pokrass gets a lot of the credit by adding her own creativity. Remember that art is give and take. The writer could possibly be way off track from what the artist thought he was saying, but the meaning lives with each of us once the art stepped into the world.

The Painter Who Painted Blue, by Meg Pokrass

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/the-painter-who-painted-blue-by-meg-pokrass

While Pokrass demonstrates that the simplest art can toss our thoughts into the wind, Barbara Lydecker Crane’s poem makes me wonder how many bored models are writing their own secret monologues, trying to tell us things the artist never had in mind, or did he? Are there two authors to this story? Perhaps we ekphrastic writers can imagine companion poems, told separately by the artist and model. 

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My throwback to autumn is subtle in most cases. We don’t see many landscapes to tell us the season, but this model is clearly an autumn in the fashion world, and her monologue carries the melancholy of winter coming on.

On My Terms, by Barbara Lydecker Crane

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/on-my-terms-by-barbara-lydecker-crane

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My Seventh Wonder of this Thursday Throwback celebrates the sure voice of the author as artist, certain that a gray pencil portrait is warm, golden, and carries the smell of apples which are nowhere to be seen.

Ethel Bartlett Sits for the Artist Laura Knight, by Neil Douglas

https://www.ekphrastic.net/the-ekphrastic-review/ethel-bartlett-sits-for-the-artist-laura-knight-by-neil-douglas

Photo courtesy of Alarie Tennille. "Either my husband or I took this beautiful view in Bordeaux, France (2012). In France, even the outdoors feel like an art museum, but we trek to every museum we can find, too."

There are more than nine years worth of writing at The Ekphrastic Review. With daily or more posts of poetry, fiction, and prose for most of that history, we have a wealth of talent to show off. We encourage readers to explore our archives by month and year in the sidebar. Click on a random selection and read through our history.
 
Our new Throwback Thursday features highlight writing from our past, chosen on purpose or chosen randomly. You’ll get the chance to discover past contributors, work you missed, or responses to older ekphrastic challenges.

Would you like to be a guest editor for a Throwback Thursday? Pick  10 favourite or random posts from the archives of The Ekphrastic Review. Use the format you see below: title, name of author, a sentence or two about your choice, and the link. Include a bio and if you wish, a note to readers about the Review, your relationship to the journal, ekphrastic writing in general, or any other relevant subject.  Put THROWBACK THURSDAYS in the subject line and send to [email protected].

Let's have some fun with this- along with your picks, send a vintage photo of yourself too!