Image by - Francesca Woodman
A Camera Looking Back
Your beating-heart
Tense as a countdown
Infused by a mind too terrible,
for your survival.
Through throes of deceit
You moan like a coyote in heat.
Bursting out of one’s own shell-
is hard to do.
Too many shells lie in wait
I watched you
Carrying one under arm
Assembling- your strength.
Bankrupted hearts
and pushy ambitious tongues
weaving cobwebs across
your spongy soul.
Confusion penetrated
the heavens around you
So bold, yet so restless you.
Stripping yourself of worldly things
Thriving nakedly to be alive.
It seemed you’d grown a bit taller-
another misguided thought.
Death
Crossed the threshold
The fan overhead
Twirls on
Even as you do not.
The almost all Black and White artist, Francesca Woodman, committed suicide on January 19, 1981 at the vibrantly young age of 22.
Perhaps she was born too early. Imagine her brilliance blossoming for the first time in the art world of today?
She'd probably be at the opening.
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27 comments:
Karen your writing is amazing. I love how one photo can take over the imagination and you my dear have a way of putting your thoughts so eloquently into words. Well done!
Tragic about the young lady who shot this photo, the poor girl never even gave herself a chance to live before she chose to end it all. The real journey begins after 40 I believe, for me that's when it began and a lot of my female friends say the same.
I often wonder why this is, I guess we finally start paying attention, or have time to pay attention, to our inner selves. Once the children start getting older we have time for reflection and far more often than not we start to hear out mothers words come out of our mouths! I think mothers are on to something... I really do! lol
Have a wonderful week!
So sad!
... 'bursting out of one’s own shell-
is hard to do' ~~
I also wonder what might have been for this talented young woman .. another time, another place.
Helen, Absolutely, her parents must be thinking this every single day.
Francesca, it surely is. Thanks for stopping by! and the follow!
Exquisite, I like this poem.
Saludos.
Exquisite, I like this poem.
you def capture the difficult emotions of it...it is hard to break out the shell...and there are so many shells....she lived a hard story...
This reminds me of Vincent, the song about Van Gogh. Maybe the world was never meant for one as beautiful as she, either. 22 is an age that has hardly begun to live and yet, she must have thought herself done with it all.
This is truly beautiful poetry.
Sad, gentle, poignant, A lovely, tragic, read.
Karen. You deserve huge kudos for tacking the assignment so literally. You also captured the artist's suffering with acute sensitivity and handled it well as a poem.
If I'm not mistaken, there is also a pretty funny line in there about growing taller, perhaps related to her head being out of frame?
I liked it
I like the details of breaking out of the shell and being nakedly alive ~ Your last stanza is great ~
Full of difficult emotion - but good
Well written, and quite moving...
A moving post!
Aloha from Honolulu
Comfort Spiral
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You have written a sensitive response to a horrible tragedy that leaves so many questions floating. I love that you could see she was "Infused by a mind too terrible for your (her) survivial." I think that too. Thanks, Karen for sharing this.
Hey Karen , i like this , it is very " Apocalypse Now" , this young woman had Scorpio on the ascendant, with Neptune parked in there for good measure, like so many of these types, she went " missing at sea" , or like Colonel Kurtz, disappeared up the river , never to be seen again , they seem to be among the most creative, and the most tragic. Vale .
Cat or dog- Yes, but kind of two fold, her head is gone, but also in her life after she hit total bottom, she was getting better or so they thought. They dropped their guard, when she probably needed them most of all, right then.
Cat or dog, thank you for such an awesome comment!
Kutamun, Thanks, and you are so right, nicely put!
suicide; hard to understand for most of us.
Artists try to convey the feeling with their work and you have helped reveal the message.
rel
When I first saw that picture, I thought, "Is that what I think it is?" This was confirmed upon closer inspection, and now I've got a headache on account of my wife thinking that I was just being a dirty old man again. YOUR FAULT!!!
karen, what a beautiful heart and mind. for me this poem speaks to having strength despite the world's negativity.
thank you.
wonderful poetry- she was such a talented artist- tragic
Sad that she took her own life.
Nakedly alive...it is worth aspiring to, certainly.
Beautiful poem capturing the intriguing mystery of the photo.
You've epitomised the tragedy of this artist's so brief life here Karen. I loved the opening lines with the heart 'counting down' to the moment when she took her own ife. A very perceptive poem.
Brilliant. Exquisite. Sad, so very sad.
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