Ekphrastic Challenge, November 2015: Editor’s Choice
Painting by Meghan Tutolo. “Divining” was written by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, November 2015, and selected by Timothy Green as the Editor’s Choice winner.
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DIVINING
Not just on the wall—
the writing’s on the sky,
the river, the bridge, your hands.
Wouldn’t you love to believe
all those blue and red lines
make a map, and if only
you could read those lines,
you might know where to go
from here? Yes, we’re lost
and wrinkled and surely doomed,
but god, in this moment
between concerns, isn’t it beautiful,
this place where we wander,
this hour when gold gathers
just before the plum of night?
—Ekphrastic Challenge, November 2015
Editor’s Choice Winner
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Comment from the editor, Timothy Green: “Quite simply, this is one of the most beautiful poems I’ve read in a while. Those last two lines demand to be re-read aloud. The poem is also clearly a genuine meditation on the painting, evoking both the overall emotion of the image, and being attentive to the finer details. The one expands upon the other, making them a perfect pair.”
