Yellow Flowers In a Vase

Posted byauthorstewPosted inpoetryTags:, , , , , , , , ,

(Still Life with Yellow Roses)

An oil painting of yellow roses in full bloom with various other flowers of pink and white with green leaves in a vase.
Le Pho (Vietmanese, 1907 – 2001), Still life with yellow roses, oil on canvas, signed Le Pho in Chinese and English (lower right)
The flowers sit on the table 
        in the corner
                     In front of the window
With the shades drawn
The colors of the flowers reflect off the off white curtain
                 creating an aura 
           around each bloom
Though that could be due as much to my not having my glasses
                       as to the reflection of light 
       from the sun

Mom always liked yellow flowers
“Good fortune”  she’d smile and say
I wondered if Dad felt they were good fortune or just cost a fortune
But he never let the vase be empty of some sort of flower
And always something yellow.

Yellow, pink and white
Orange and green
           All the colors stand out 
      and combine
Against a hazy backdrop 
That is the room where they sit
        The room of my childhood
    The room of family 
The colors of prosperity and good fortune
Simply colors of the past
                 like the petals of flowers
      soon to fade away

This was from a prompt from dVerse, see below. The artist is Le Pho. I chose to use the artwork shown above and to do a derivative haibun.

For your Poetics prompt today, I would like you to select one of the artworks I have included in this post, or you may peruse Sunnyside’s selection here. Once you have selected an artwork, write a poem blending ekphrasis and theme (choose one from the list).

ekphrasis: a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art
theme: a subject or topic of discourse or of artistic representation
*women
*flowers
*landscapes
*family

Published by authorstew

C. Stuart Lewis creates poems with feeling, intelligence and sex appeal. His short stories and books focus on characters that feel real in real world situations. Originally from the United States he now resides in Ontario, Canada. Check out his webpage at TheAuthorStew.ca

11 thoughts on “Yellow Flowers In a Vase”

  4. I also like the shape of your poem and the way you arrange the stanzas and the lines. I really love the second stanza and the narrative aspect of your poem. I like the assessment of the colors of the flowers reflecting off of a white curtain. I also like the personal touch of not having the glasses.💐

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  5. I really like the shape and layout of your poem, Stew, especially the first stanza, the way it tentatively describes the flowers and the light in the painting before shifting to a solid memory, a step back in time. I also like the use of colour.

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