Ekphrastic Challenge, July 2018: Artist’s Choice
Image: “What Once Was” by Bryan DeLae. “Relic” was written by Ginny Lowe Connors for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, July 2018, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.
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RELIC
It was a city once. That much we know.
People began it. Machines mostly ran it.
And faces of the missing accumulated.
They became scraps, weather-stained.
People began it. Machines mostly ran it.
Spoke for them. Told what to do, where to go.
They became scraps, weather-stained.
Dark blue ink on skins of the living
spoke for them. Said Here I am, Here I go.
Etched in pain, mocking light.
Only pigeons still believed in flight.
There were no stars at night.
Just a large, loud mockery of light.
And faces of the missing accumulated.
There were no stars at night.
It was a city once. That much we know.
—from Ekphrastic Challenge
July 2018, Artist’s Choice
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Comment from the artist, Bryan DeLae: “I was tempted to choose a poem that was quite different from the thoughts I had when creating the image, however I decided to select the one that most captured the mood of my creation. I feel that Relic did that so well and with a minimal amount of words which mirrors the bleakness and solitary feel of the image itself.”
