We were standing in the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Here are painters who want to communicate
They show up on their canvases
Emotive, sensual, engaging,
Pouring over the edges with ideas
They are Hydrogen, capable
Of the complex chain of reactions
Required to fuel a galaxy
Rauschenberg, Mitchell, de Kooning
All Hydrogen molecules
Dancing, spinning, arguing
Contrasting the inert gasses across the hall
Nonreactive as Krypton,
From kryptos, “the hidden one”
It is actually a skill,
This art of invitation
Creating works capable of fusion
Viewer, artist, and painting,
Conspiring toward explosions
A dangerous, naked,
And frightening proposition
Can you blame the countless artists,
Hiding behind flat surfaces,
Incapable of combustion,
Unable to make the invitation?
Chromapoetica 
Wow I really like this. I was more into art a couple years ago and got to see lots of paintings and such in museums, but I never thought of it like this. Very well done and very true. Nice work!
As a painter I have empathy for artists’ fears. When artists overcome their limitations and engage it’s electrifying.
Lovely, anguish is expressed in these words
This is brilliant!
Thank you, I really enjoyed your poem, Everyday Saint.
very nice indeed 🙂
hmm, not sure, I like to think that all artists are unique each in our own way. 🙂
As the former Executive Director of a community arts organization focused on bringing out the inner artist in all of us, I couldn’t agree more.
I love art, and I like the way you’ve approached it with your poetry.
used to visit art museums a lot.
vivid imagery your words have painted here,
Happy Rally.
🙂
Thank you again for including me in the Rally. It was wonderful to meet so many new, talented, and interesting poets.
Great florid art … I loved the abundantly using of place names and the prosodic theme it carries…
Thank you for your erudition and discernment.
You perfectly articulate the wondrous sensations that wash over me when I’m in a museum or gallery. So well done!
I love hearing that other people share this response to art. I write a blog about the arts, http://chromalexicon.com that you may be of interest to you.
I felt transported back to a time I had time to spend in museums
A scientific approach merging with art..forms so much sense and creates innumerable ripples to ponder upon.
Great work!
Alcina
My degree is in Biology so I enjoy weaving together art and science. The “innumerable ripples” are what I live for as a poet. Thank you!
Watching a painting without taking your eyes off it is such a great experience
Amazing theme, extremely well handled (from a complete layman’s perspective, of course)… Set off some neurons firing in my head, for sure! Thank you for sharing!
There’s nothing more gratifying to me than to know that something I’ve produced is thought-provoking. It’s how we, as artists, writers, musicians enter into dialogue with others.
what a surprise! -contemplating an abstration and responding to it by creating another abstraction…great poetry!
Fabulous imagery here. A wonderful read.
Enjoyed this one. Love the metaphors and the imagery you used. And I think you’ve vividly showed how it takes a work and skill to know how to get in touch with one’s audience, how to get across what one is trying to portray in one’s art. The fear that you talk about in the last stanza, is interesting to me, because I often wonder if I even dare to show all my works to all the people I know. Naked and frightening proposition indeed, what might come from the connection when it is made through viewing of one’s work.
I have a post on my blog about the arts, http://chromalexicon.com, called the Reciprocity of Vulnerability in Art. It addresses this issue directly and may be of interest to you. The point at the end of it all is that art’s transformative power lies in the willingness of the artist, writer, musician, actor, etc. to reveal their inner life and the audience to respond with openness and willingness to fully engage. If both these conditions are met then something original, thought-provoking, and emotionally fulfilling is born.
my spouse is an artist and we spend a lot of time in museums – I like how you have portrayed the vulnerability of the artist – nice poem
Yikes I was really scared there! But, I do not know how you brought me from one chemistry dimension to another, but, U did. what a wonderful (ride) read.
That is an interesting poetic description of art – one that bears revisitng and thinking further on.
‘Creating works capable of fusion’ – caught me attention. My blog is called 1513fusion!
I wrote a novel set in 1513 and also fuse glass to copper in a kiln to make images.
Thank you, I looked at your blog and enjoyed reading Kelp. The artwork, Moon Fleet, also caught my attention. I’ve done a bit of enameling myself, mostly jewelry.
Interesting concept. i am an artist married to an artist. I never would have thought of painting hiding explosive ideas. Wonderful read. Thank You….
Melanie
A great storytelling poem. Fantastic imagery created.
Clever words…I like the layers of meaning here. =)
Very nice. So many levels
nice read… one can never define an artist, as art cannot be incarcerated by limits, once you define means you are drawing a line… artist always explore, explode, it has to be understood,.. going far, i would even say… one cannot even comment perfectly on ones work jz coz when an artist creates something , he/she has own vision ….
gr8 post, glad to visit
I could find myself seeing from the eye of the artist, the painter as he invited the muse for him to play with the brush 🙂 Quite a beautiful post.
Thank you, as a painter it is easy for me to imagine the senario. I’m glad I was effective in conveying the process in the poem.
I love this; especially the last line that speaks about fear of self-revelation.
Great work with this! I’m an artist and a writer and it’s only been lately through my writing that I’ve realized this symbiotic relationship between the creator (artist of any flavor) and the viewer. We create things in the effort of implanting thoughts and images in others minds…it’s a very powerful talent. This was very well articulated and I enjoyed the chemistry images you employed.
~Renee
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. I’m reading your poem, Being, now.
I like the idea of artists fuelling a galaxy… It can certainly be an explosion, what happens between a work of art and the people who experience it (and between the work and the creator). Nicely put.
Yes.
I love this ending, and it brought back memmories, of Seattle, well done, and yes, you can’t blame them, Thank you, much appreciated, WS