Two Poems After Two Photographs, by James N. Hoffman

Ekphrasisism Reversed, photograph by James N Hoffman (USA) 2022

ekphrasisism reversed:
            it’s a two-way mirror

alice walked through the glass
and entered an upside-down reality
    where perspective was changed
    where the mirror was an image unto itself
       in an indecision of art

hanging there on a facade
a masterpiece alone
no brush strokes or colours
just words on a wall
   a frame so solus
 in all of art

brilliant painters lifted the brush and stroked beautiful canvases
colourful scenes of the mad geniuses’ dreams

but the mirror was still one sided
then the eckphrastic masters arrived
    and All was changed!

the mirror wobbled
   and swirled
clear light became hazy
my hand went through
  into another

i saw brushes paint words and words paint pictures
the eckphrastics came alive
in brilliant colour
bright blue
   yellow
       and green
All in hues

the oranges painted
and the acrylics spread cheer
 finally the writer could see the paint on his page
a canvas
as he stood on the stage

alice walked through 
            the glass! 
                one more time

And the eckphrastics 
          became gods

​

Self Portrait, photograph by James N Hoffman (USA) 2022

Self-Portait

incandescent blue 
3-dimensional distortions
Gold crusted

a black silvery green 
figurine
with eerie colours
in a bright yellow frame

deep
a depth in space
inside my mind
ribbons warp
as fields enfold
upon themselves
in
an abyss not
                       yet   
                               revealed

in an elongated space
in which time and light
subsist 
         a quasi-solitude is found
that delivers a peaceful chaos
             in an unsettled expanse

look into mine eyes
that cannot be seen
     see the electricity
of the creative spark
that only lives in an illusion
      of mind
          caught in the need
             of the ever present 
ego

oh! That he could be dead
that i be alive!

warped space
in cool lights
the shadowy figurine
paints
azure lanes
in which
2 bi-cycles
ride 
in this space
this place
slightly out of sight
in dark shadows 
which show
lite 
orange 
orchid cabinets
eerily in an avocado verdant haze

he thinks and paints    
in colours
auric words on the palette

the brush
which gives his being 
his meaning to be
the infinite eternity he seeks
to be free

as the lightening dove flies in from the right
    this shadowy
                 figure
                       has to be!

    he plays
       in the frame
              painting
                    All 
                            of the day

James N. Hoffman
​
James N Hoffman is retired and living with his wife in Ocean City, Maryland.  He has an MA in Applied Psychology and a BA in Philosophy. James started writing many decades ago but found he liked to write what he called colour poetry since he cannot paint.  Later he learned that it is called ekphrastic and has been as old as some of the Greek philosophy he studied.  James has been published in the Ekphrastic Challenge many times.