Two Poems for Georgia O’Keefe
Toni Ortner’s manuscript for a book on Georgia O’Keefe has been accepted for publication. Here below are two exerts from it.
A Blackbird with Snow Covered Red Hills 1946 for Georgia O’Keefe
You say the hills are red but all I see is white snow & light rising like mist to push out the blue of air.
You say this is a blackbird, but if this was a hill and a blackbird flying over it surely the blackbird would seem small, yet the wings stretch right across the sky. The bird is not a bird. It is flight.
What you said is not what you painted.
Appearance is deceptive.
59th Street Studio, 1919, For Georgia O’Keefe
What kind of studio is this?
Exquisitely Georgia O’Keefe
here no door walls windows floor
no fruits or flowers set in a vase
no paints pencils paper
black dominates space
edges hesitate.
Imagine brown asymmetrical shapes
as narrow windows covered with cardboard sheets
so she cannot see the light or hear noises from the street .
A crimson arrow points inward.
