A poem by Maurine Killough
My friend Maurine Killough is an incredibly talented poet whose work I want you all to read. Go to her blog, iwritemyself, to read more of her art. I will post when she is performing her poetry; this is NOT to be missed. She is FAB-U-LOUS! My mother and I wanted her to read her entire book to us. Sometimes her husband, Danny Swetlik, accompanies her on the bass. Danny is a member of the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra and plays in a local rock/blues group, High Mileage.
The following poem won first place and best of show at the San Mateo County Fair this year (2012). Congratulations dear Maurine. Can’t wait to hear you perform this one at the fair. Please come and support her. This is her invite:
flaming inspiration by Maurine Killough
this is an ekphrastic poem about Frederic Leighton’s Flaming June
oh, june, you are a figment of imagination
your billowing ripples beckoning
slumber sex and labial impressions
i want to be lost in your folds
lovely june, you are a Christmas fire in summer
glazing the eyes of hot toddies with caribbean sunsets
i can feel your heat from here
i want to crawl into your swallow, float my palm along your orange drapes
dissolve in your marigold madness
and caress the island of your third eye
you sat down for him
issued that suffering moan
then deep pocketed your eyes
and melted into his chariot of fire
you arbitrarily give us your flame
and we blaze in your fire
the poet writes, the artist draws, the actor delivers
and the musician plays
oh june, your paint is only skin deep
but your superficial love burns eternal in our desire
a classic player of tricks
your hearth is burning
illusive
did you hide from him, you clementine, you citrus Tart?
the way you play hide and seek with the rest?
you held the power
to rise from the chair of fantasy
step onto your own
and leave empty his marble throne
escaping in your sleep
sweeping away in your oleander boat
and dreaming of the blazing sea
until you dreamed yourself awake
and flamed the fire
of the artist’s desire
you opened your world to him
spread your oasis wide
and let him drink
your orange flame …
without you
just the echo of color
on a store-bought canvas
without you
a poem ill-worded, an idea gone nowhere, a play unfinished
music is discord
capricious muse, for however much time you stay with us
we will swim in our creative passions
climax in our love affair with art
express the artist’s craft
and burn in your retractable flame
Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton
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