“The Scene Is Set” by Rose Lennard

November 28, 2024Posted by

Zaubererturm by Jennifer S. Lange, abstract illustration of a dark gray tower in the woods

Image: “Zaubererturm” by Jennifer S. Lange. “The Scene Is Set” was written by Rose Lennard for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, October 2024, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.

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Rose Lennard

THE SCENE IS SET

Time slows like ancient windows flowing,
reflections warp, horizons bend their bounds
and history is waiting to get going.
The trembling ash sing all the root-found
songs of hope they know; sound a warning
in shades of myth, the mauve around a wound.
Towers that fell have risen again this morning
vine-wound, cloud-capped, tall ships marooned.
 
Ravens hang forever turning overhead,
their blessed eggs lie cool in distant nests;
they dream of naked chicks with noisy gapes
to stuff with dug-up grubs until they fledge.
The screen awakes, the scene is set.
You cast the spell, the world remakes.
 

—from Ekphrastic Challenge
October 2024, Editor’s Choice

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Comment from the series editor, Megan O’Reilly: “‘The Scene is Set’ is masterfully composed in every way–the flawless rhymes, the fluid cadence, the depth of meaning. Lennard’s descriptions of Jennifer S. Lange’s piece are both visually and acoustically striking: ‘vine-wound, cloud-capped, tall ships marooned.’ The poet references ‘shades of myth,’ a fitting interpretation of ‘Zaubererturm’ and its soft, subtle invocation of fairytale and folklore. There’s an otherwordly quality to the image, interpreted by the poet as a different kind of reality (‘time slows … reflections warp…horizons bend …’). The poem’s ending, and its depiction of a temporal, illusory world, feels like a perfect homage to a gorgeously enigmatic work of art.”

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