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      May 24, 2018Facial RecognitionJanice Zerfas

      Image: “Through the Looking Glass” by Melody Carr. “Facial Recognition” was written by Janice Zerfas for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, April 2018, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
      The real truth is that some of us don’t have
      facial recognition, unable to recall
      the goblet of a face. Then, we think of rain
      falling so sparsely from the gutters that
      we wonder if it is rain, especially if the face
      is bunched with three pointed leaves
      skimming across a pond. The attempt
      to recognize begins with the quick look
      across the cheekbones, so muddied
      with a dirt caramel and studded goldfish
      color, like this woman who stands in front
      of a window casement chalk cradle white.
      Then we identify the strip of the nose,
      the soft mouth summing up a sound,
      but it’s useless. We have no ability to
      even make a forensic analysis
      of her face, much less her cauterized eyebrow.
      Her face is plaited with leaves and petals;
      there’s even a third eye off in its placement—
      but, still, all these clues and she’s still unrecalled.
      What’s worse, there’s a bird-sniffing
      revenant, or ghost, or maybe just her own
      shadow behind her, leavening its reclusive
      smoky compost. I look at her, and think
      if a stranger looked at my face, as I am
      glossing over hers, would they see
      the morning birds that I listen for each a.m.,
      how I look for anything turning over
      even in a pallid wind,
      or how my body stands in silence at
      the bathroom window where I can
      get a better view of wind tailings: especially
      the dark sharp-shinned hawk,
      eyeing the casement that I linger by,
      wanting out of the rainfall.
      I move to the side, hoping
      the crush of leaves will disguise my looking.
      It sidles up, giving me another way
      to look at a face, my face, wanting.
      When I first saw the hawk’s loose-filled
      feathers, I thought I saw my own self.
      Keep looking, I want to tell her.
      Keep deciphering, the face will become
      clearer, and the image will return to you.
      Just say hello.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the artist, Melody Carr

      “My favorite poem was ‘Facial Recognition.’ What I loved in this poem is that there is a level of truth in it that taught me something about the photograph I took, something that I felt with a shock of recognition, the way the poem carefully moves over the face in the photograph, in an almost tactile movement, finding so much truth in each place the poem touches on, and yet so much mystery remaining, hidden in the closest gloss. The ending of the poem reminds me a bit of a story. Kathleen Raine wrote that the mystical view is that there is not one universe with many beings, but instead there are multiple universes, but only one being. This is a wonderful thought to me. I used to go around and think when I would see people passing in cars, that each one was just a form of me in another universe, as I was of them. Everyone a strange universe, everyone me. And by the way, the photograph is a selfie—that’s me—in another universe—almost familiar, but unknown … and reading poems submitted in response to it was quite interesting. It was wonderful to have the chance to engage with a community of poets writing on the picture and delightful to read the poems that it inspired. Thanks to everyone who created their own vision of recognizing a face inspired by seeing the photo.”

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