For years she had lain
horizontal. and long, long
after the spring flush of lust
had passed. Patches of green
once fresh fleshed, putrefying
just the one thin coverlet
cold years of dust
on the painter's blue-grey nude
And searching out Eurydice
amongst the attic bric-à-brac
he stroked with filbert brush and fan
in paint, poured moulds of music
note by note and piece by piece
a ketonet passim* so fine and warm
for exit from her underworld
Out of the hellish core
molten as passions
she rises. Up through
narrow vented organ pipes
squeezed hotter still.
Within this pyrotechnic thrust
some ashen clouds stripped
from storms at sea, and patchwork
scrub of Oxley green. Higher and higher
a suffocating symphony of verticals
for her singed and singing face
- ketonet passim – from Hebrew as per the biblical Joseph’s ‘ coat of many colours’
- Orpheus and Eurydice – a Greek myth
- Orphism – the trend in abstract art, to which Kupka subscribed, for painting to have musical qualities see here
Hosting Open Link Night, Lillian offers an optional set prompt and inspiration for our poetry from Frantisek Kupka’s ” Mme Kupka among Verticals” [click for closer view] – this abstract painting he created on one of the unfinished representative portraits of his wife after 30+ years.,
PoetryPix 
WOW! Like Bjorn, you’ve done some research on the painting I offered up for the optional prompt. Thank you so much for penning this wonderful write….and for the explanations. I saw the original of this painting at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the weekend before Christmas. We’d gone there with our daughter and granddaughter (12th grade), to see the Rockettes. CRAZY busy and crowded city the weekend before Christmas. We took some extra time to go to MOMA and just wandered about. I stopped and just stood in front of this vibrant painting for what seemed a long time. I decided, very quickly, to use the image for the optional prompt today….and after reading your’s and Bjorn’s posts, which tell so much more about the image, I am SOOOO glad I did! Your poem is beautiful with wonderful imagery. THANK YOU!
I must thank you Lillian for such a provocative prompt – so glad you stopped by the MOMA,
I love this, I think there might be paintings of his wife laying nude horisontal as well… so the way you focus on the verticals is excellent.
Also I imagine the original painting lying on its side, discarded before the canvas was resurrected
Ah,, yes that is also true from the history of the painting.
This is a beautiful poem, Laura, so lyrical. It’s a gorgeous interpretation.
thank you Merril – being abstract it opened up so much to the imagination
You’re welcome, Laura. I love where your imagination took you!
“Up through vented organ pipes”
So visual! And well done.
thank you Ken – tried to keep it as visual as the visual prompt
This is sheer poetic brilliance, Laura! Goodness! I especially love; “He stroked with filbert brush and fan in paint.” 😍
Laura I like what you saw in this. Where she went from horizontal to vertical and the “narrow vented organ pipes”
I have learnt something new about abstract art and Orphism, Laura. I love the way you imagined the painting lying horizontal for years ‘long after the spring flush of lust had passed’ and how the artist ‘poured moulds of music note by note and piece by piece’. I feel sorry for his wife behind that ‘suffocating symphony of verticals’. I want to know more about her and about their marriage now.
I love the movement in this piece, the flow and crescendo as the images unfold. Thanks for the references and reminder of Joseph’s ‘coat of many colours’. I hadn’t thought about that for a long time.
This is a wonderful envisioning of the painting. I could see it taking shape. I especially like the reference to the coat of many colors. (K)