Square Eyed Seven

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury 
The Escalator.
With measured, 
mechanized descent
we stage an entrance
to the Mall
human humdrum
backs the busker
picking black notes
bluesy runs
Cardboard Blotter
Workmen threw 
white cardboard down
all along some 
flagstone lines
black gloss railings
newly coated
excess drips
as pavement art. 
Cityscape, 
an abstract forest
inkblot test for passers-by
The Mews
Cobbled roadway,
framed in brick
designed so horse
and coach shan't slip. 
Two door stables
modernized
now high performing 
horsepower prized
Big Mac Retrospective
They took a bite
and left it there
in the spotlight
garbage bagged
'still life waiting'
installation
on the concourse
at the station
The Mannequin
kaleidoscoped
in small glass panes
bold print fabric
blank the stare
she holds her folds
with outward arms
annunciating
haute couture
Gimme Shelter
A two bin refuge
rustic lean-to
acrylic gambrel
drums in rain
almost dry
and almost cosy
single homeless
room to spare
Illusion
The train departs
and the station slithers past
all steel and glass

For Open Link Nights @dVerse Lisa offers up an optional picture prompt but I’ve opted instead for this 7 verse ekphrastic poem which was inspired by Kerfe’s comment on my recent post: Seven London Squares-click photo for optional closer view

36 thoughts on “Square Eyed Seven”

  2. Fantastic photos and fabulous ekphrastics. Very creative and love the formatting. My favorite one is The Mannequin ❤ I think I’m following that page now. Looks like a fun prompt to do.

    1. thanks Lisa and for hosting OLN – all were sights just snapped on a quick daytrip to London and posted for one of the September squares theme. Kerfe commented they all looked liked chapters in a book which inspired me to write them as verses instead

  3. I love the format as each frame captures of life in that simple scene. I must say it is very creative of you to write about the Big Mac Retrospective. And that Carboard blotter is a cityscape, an abstract forest, and certainly an ink-blot test. Very creative serving Laura.

  5. The cobbled roadway,
    framed in brick
    designed so horse
    and coach don’t slip made me smile. And the big mac installation!

  6. Love all these poems, Laura and especially “annunciating – haute couture”. The urban environment is so full of things waiting to be written about…

  11. I love your seven-verse ekphrastic poem Laura, which takes me home. I’ll be passing through London next week on my way down to Hampshire to visit my daughter and grandsons. I especially love the alliterative ‘human humdrum’, which sounds like me harrumphing at the crowds on the escalators, and the busker in the background – they always cheer me up; the ‘cityscape, an abstract forest inkblot test for passers-by’; and the mews reminded me of the one near Clapham Common, not far from where my daughter used to live – I so wanted to live there at the time.

    1. thank you Kim – glad this evoked so many memories and sounds, alliterative and othersise

      p.s. I had a brief stay back in the 60s in a mews in Earls Court so they always appeal

  12. I love this–each one a poem in itself, but together they make something more. I also like how you pick out the ordinary, almost universal urban images. I could find similar images in Philadelphia. Wonderful, Laura!

  16. That’s an interesting format to try and you’ve done it well. Inspiring me to consider something like this one day too.

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