birds in an aquarium - neil ellman

(after the sculpture by Jean [Hans] Arp)

The way I feel     

in a dream 

floundering

like a thrush

or sparrow

in a stormy sea

with useless wings

trying to ride

the clouds

but slapping at glass

instead

twittering bubbles

coughing salt

through irrelevant

beaks—

a fish out of water

has an easier time

than me

being a bird

where I should

never be.

Twice nominated for Best of the Net, Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. Hundreds of his poems, many of which are ekphrastic and based on works of modern art, appear in print and online journals throughout the world, as well as in nine chapbooks.

through the mirror of the mirror - neil ellman

(after the painting by Roberto Matta)

                 I

What lies behind

imagination repeats

what seems

the trinity

will be will be

infinity-fold

perpetual now

through the mirror

of the mirror

of time

time asserts

and reasserts

its endless hold.

              II

Mirror mirror

see me pray

hear my echo

through the glass

I am I am

eternity-held

and bound

the once

and future now.

Twice nominated for Best of the Net, Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. Hundreds of his poems, many of which are ekphrastic and based on works of modern art, appear in print and online journals throughout the world, as well as in nine chapbooks.

mama, papa is wounded - neil ellman

(after the painting by Yves Tanguy)

Fornever more

when the green-clad offings

of peace

thread the spool

of malevolent day 

there

among the leavings

of ever-never

are the offspring of an almost

perfect war

                      *

                 

              mama mama

        his wounds run deep

              papa papa

                or what

                if ever

                 how

               you die

                     *

for the if- and the might- and

the when- of my life, for you

and brothers in arms.




Twice nominated for Best of the Net, Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. Hundreds of his poems, many of which are ekphrastic and based on works of modern art, appear in print and online journals throughout the world, as well as in nine chapbooks.

Untitled (Boxer) - Neil Ellman

(after the painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat)

Beaten battered broken

his skeleton shows through

skin bruised & maligned

betrayed by honor

the ring’s graffiti law

displaced among strangers

and out of breath

beyond salvation

he raises fists

to a pugnacious god

and prays—

     No mas!

     No mas!

Twice nominated for Best of the Net, Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. Hundreds of his poems, many of which are ekphrastic and based on works of modern art, appear in print and online journals throughout the world, as well as in nine chapbooks.

59th Street Ramp - Neil Ellman

(after the painting by Richard Pousette-Dart)

They come and go

from the other side

of somewhere else

in slow scrawls

crawling out of the hollow end

of a shadow

between this world and the next

here and then

back and forth

drifters on an indifferent road

half asleep, half alive                                                  

halfway between

consciousness and appetite

they who are us

dread

the long slog home.

 Twice nominated for Best of the Net, Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey. Hundreds of his poems, many of which are ekphrastic and based on works of modern art, appear in print and online journals throughout the world, as well as in nine chapbooks.