I’m really proud to be able to showcase a response by Ralph La Rosa to the Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, won by Mary Meriam. The poem is below, and huge thanks to Ralph for both sharing the poem with me and being happy for me to post it.
I find the whole poem a gorgeous read, funny and clever, with a life wholly of its own, but my favourite bit of the poem is that wonderful rhyme of proscenium and pandemonium.
and all the whorl’s a stage
reveals this pretty page
so fresh with jelly fish
afloat (soft) one lipish
tempting me to lean and kiss
it to increase my bliss
on this worldish proscenium
no hint of pandemonium
(word made by master Milton)
upon a sea we see afloat
but not within a boat
above a huge blue whale
with a sperm-like tail
and arising from a mist
a Bi-gender being (horns a-twist)
balances the chronic Moon
cool partner of the breeding Sun
drawing mist up from the sea
then back to you and me
as life within a grey-grown smear
of clouds (with manna water)
for Bi-being standing tall
till the stage’s curtains fall
About the Author
Ralph La Rosa has published prose on major American writers and has also placed short fiction, poetry, and film scripts. These days, he mostly writes poetry, appearing widely on the Internet, in print journals and in anthologies. Books include the chapbook Sonnet Stanzas and the full-length collections Ghost Trees and My Miscellaneous Muse: Poem Pastiches & Whimsical Words.
I’ve chosen another of my images as the header image for this post, which I think works interestingly as a response to Ralph’s poem. For my next post, I’ll be sharing work from Jason Ringler, another poetic response to the Rattle Ekphrastic, another narrative from the image.