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      July 28, 2016The ClimbJeffrey Bean

      Photograph: “Go Your Own Way” by James Croal Jackson. “The Climb” was written by Jeffrey Bean for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2016, and selected by Timothy Green as the Editor’s Choice winner.
      Sunlight cut a path. We slouched
      as we climbed it because we felt huge
      in this place without trees. We shut
      our eyes, pictured the flashing undersides
      of leaves spun by wind. The hill crackled
      where we walked. Dust blew down it
      like shed skin that stuck to our skin
      until we turned the color of rocks.
      The hill led to other hills, the sky
      swelled and deepened at the peak.
      The clouds and our hair tumbled
      and bulged. At night in flapping tents
      the money in our pockets felt
      like useless weight. No stars. No
      grass. I dreamed of a cloudless sky
      glinting with coins. I dreamed
      I touched the faces of the couple
      we followed all day into the distance.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the editor, Timothy Green

      “Like the best ekphrastic poems, ‘The Climb’ turns an artist’s image into metaphor for something new. Like the best poems, ‘The Climb’ expresses that metaphor intuitively, so that the revelation is more felt than understood. In this the height of campaign season in the U.S., I couldn’t help but see the poem as political, as the climb to be one of activism and social evolution. In that reading, too, the ambiguity fits.”

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