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      October 16, 2015Sister MoonJane Williams

      Painting by Sarah Oyetunde. “Sister Moon” was written by Jane Williams for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, September 2015, and selected by Oyetunde as the Artist’s Choice winner.
      Hemispheres apart—
      we have been this way for years.
      As I rise with the rising moon,
      you sleep on
      through oceans of dreaming,
      losing and finding yourself
      in the tidal push-pull
      of your divided heart
      at each equatorial point of yearning—
      such a long way away …
      But listen!
      Today I saw this painting
      and you were in it.
      In the returning curl
      of each wave, each cloud,
      in the seaweed flowering purple,
      your favorite color,
      in the tiny white birds hovering over
      the crown of the sun going down,
      let’s say doves, for old times’ sake,
      on the rippling path of water
      that lead nowhere
      but moved when you moved,
      rested when you rested
      and yes in the rising of the moon—
      the same moon.

      from Ekphrastic Challenge

      Comment from the artist, Sarah Oyetunde

      “I chose this poem mainly because on a gut level it resonated the most for me. I really like the sense of story combined with the narrator appearing to have a sense of their loved one’s presence within the painting, describing the loved one as if they were the painting or that the loved one would recognize or somehow know the painting. It feels like the person who wrote this poem was both writing their story and the painting’s story … perhaps they were both narrator and viewer.”

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