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      May 30, 2019Art TherapyAaric Tan Xiang Yeow

      Image: “Kandinsky’s Slippers” by Denise Zygadlo. “Art Therapy” was written by Aaric Tan Xiang Yeow for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, April 2019, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
      The key is to construct a self from
      scraps. Be it an origami lily with
       
      a credit card bill, or collage pieced
      using childhood photos. Think
       
      of a lost puzzle piece, its edge
      bent to fit. Think of a home
       
      as a blueprint, with a toilet
      tap that keeps dripping
       
      even when tightened till
      the forearm aches. Think of
       
      window blinds as rebars,
      a ribcage as an iron scaffold.
       
      Think of father at the balcony,
      eyes closed. Before him, the city
       
      sprawling like his firstborn child,
      excited with a crayon stick.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the editor, Timothy Green

      “What first draws me to this poem is the voice, which genuinely sounds like the speaker in a guided meditation recording. But what holds me are the great leaps between the lines and images—and those great line breaks! There’s a wonderful sense of movement and surprise as we tumble down the poem, an expansion outward, until we reach that final line’s excitement. I feel revivified after reading this, and I can’t think of another poem that leaves me with that feeling. I want to go out and take a crayon to the world myself.”

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