Fighting, or something more carnal? Buttocks and biceps, hip to hip Blood oozes through carbonate
Reprobate. Did Jacob ever overcome that cuddled struggle? Do Not Touch. My fingers On big bold toes - Man is cured
Afternoons and after all, there's always analogue. Clocks melt. Pocket chocolate. Hot under this collar We strip before a nude
God dispenses gifts. A Journeyman doled talents. Lifelike flesh putrid green. Clash of gash red smile. Wasting away, waste of paint and Peeping Toms
Moving. keep moving lest we petrify Statues advance, out of the eye's corner. A watchman. Tick-tock. Do Not Touch
Electric wires nerve taut. Sensitive to stealth Keeps collection in connection. No mycorrhizal miracle Fungi give roots some reason to relate
Natural hangings, landscapes, a lizard peeps From tulips. Life's never still. Sling expectation Slop canvas, drip by drop, paint finds form.
Tea. And coffee summons to the café. All munch On musings. "Next visit I'll show you the Rembrandts" "That's nice". I hear the Chiaroscuro master chuckle.
For my MTB Critique & Craft prompt “Picking up some pieces” we are writing a piece of Modernist Fragment Poetry – either several numbered stanzas with disjointed relationship, or a poem where the whole is in fragments, as here on a Tate gallery visit
PoetryPix 
Oh, I really love this… after reading that it was written while visiting an art gallery the pieces amalgamated to something so much more.
thanks Bjorn – I tried to imagine it as a prose piece that I broke up
All beautiful, Laura, but the “N” seeps in deep. I love the formatting of the stanzas!
slipped in an acrostic there Lisa – thank you
you’re most welcome
This is gorgeously gorgeously rendered, Laura! Wow! I especially love; “Afternoons and after all, there’s always analogue. Clocks melt. Pocket chocolate. Hot under this collar. We strip before a nude..” 💝💝
ahh thank you for picking the A
What a good idea! I wondered what was going on until I read the explanation at the end, and suddenly, it all made sense and each stanza became more visual.
yes its a fragmented whole rather than a whole lot of fragments
And the fragments are so scattered, it needs a clue to see the whole, and when you do, it seems so obvious.
This is a great exercise for an acrostic.
indeed
Really quite brilliant, smashing light and darkness so together in this chiaroscuro of an embrace. There’s fire in the shards, friction to keep meaning haunted & still yearning. The only thing that seemed over the top was the big drop caps. Maybe just bold the first letter? And the title should probl. be singular “Fragment.” Minor observations on a really kinetic poem.
thank you for all your feedback Brendan – and you have a point about plurality but the title came to me during insomnia so I stuck with it! Also I wanted to encapsulate the whole fragment so I like the drop cap best
This is a barometre…transcends quite a bit I am learning about poetry, or more exactly takes me to another step. Exciting read!
that so good to hear – ever open to new ways of expressing our poetry
Both with typography and written imagery you have painted a wonderful canvas here, pun intended. I really enjoyed this.
thank you and for the pun
I don’t usually take acrostics all that seriously, Laura, but this one is marvelous. Whodathunkit? wowza!
(And thanks for hosting this cool prompt).
many thanks Ron – am only an occasional acrosticer! the fragments fitted the bill though, as the saying goes
(good to know you enjoyed this prompt – it shows rather too well in your poem!)
Love this Laura! To think all were picked up in that fragment of time in the art gallery is most fascinating! Thanks for hosting Ma’am!
Hank
many thanks Hank – as you observed these are in essence fragments of time and hence the clock references
Right away I thought it was an Ekphrastic ramble through some different works of art. A gallery visit is perfect! (K)
sort of pointillism in words 😉 thanks K
Certainly abstracted, but I think you’ve achieved it in different abstract ways as well.
that’s even more encouraging – thank you
Wow, that is all, wow!
❤
This was wonderful Laura. I loved traveling through the Tate with you ☺️
glad to have you along, Christine
Such a fabulous idea to use surrounding, like a museum, as your source material. I just love these.
thank you Misky – it is all we can ever take from such visits
I loved this acrostic! The fragments too, were beautiful on their own 🙂
thank you – each should be a small whole!
Acrostic poems may be the ultimate in fragment poetry! Brava, Laura!j
not sure about that Helen but it fitted here
This is wonderful. There is just so much in here.
thank you for seeing that!
I was confused at first, but the end brings it all together. What a wonderful idea. I can totally imagine wandering through an art museum and viewing these paintings.
confusion is good Merrill – in fact modern fragment poetry especially does not seek to reassure with an understanding so am thinking I should have left out the explanation!
Some confusion is fine–but to me, too much is just frustrating, and I don’t get anything out of it.
I know what you mean though occasionally it slows my reading down and I start to hear and understand in a different way
Oh, interesting.
Loved how the fragments fell together like a puzzle solved with the last stanza!
Pax,
Dora
thanks Dora but the fragment poem is best left to digest in pieces 😉
Very Clever format, Laura. I vote for F and that “carbonate/ reprobate” rhyme. I really like this format and the freedom to hit the reader with seemingly (but not necessarily) random images or scenes which you do so well here. On the subject of meaning, I have to confess it’s the last thing I look for when reading a poem, it’s the the language, the images, the music and those rhymes that take me by surprise…JIM
spot on Jim – appreciate all your feedback – I agree meaning does not have to be at the forefront – take Dylan Thomas for example, I just love listening to his words and Cohen’s lyrics