Hum of Creation - an ekphrastic poem.

[Ekphrastic poems are pieces inspired by a piece of art. Here is one of mine, the painting introduced to me at a poetry workshop years ago. Enjoy!]

“Hum of Creation”

from Remedios Varo's painting “Embroidering the Earth's Mantle"

While a tempest brews outside,

rumbling, and shudders;

Inside, nimble fingers bob, weave and flutter.

Light filters gray through slit windows

of secreted stone tower;

Swish of sleeves and whir of looms

provide ambience every hour.

I look up from my looming work

at my golden-haired siblings;

Though we look alike,

as youngest I jam the yarn-strings.

To keep rhythm with the others

I sing softly as I work

to the monk’s hymn-like incantations

that in my ears do lurk.

For my sisters and I create this mantle

that spills down o’er the world

but the Chanter’s tones infuse the Life Force

into the fabric so artfully twirled.

Though I am the novice,

our work flows steadily on;

It is our trade to provide the ground

that earthly beings shall tread upon.

And though I would not exchange our lots—

those fragile mortals with me—

I do often wonder on

the varied lives they'll lead.

But I will never know them

for when our creative work is done,

we will rest up in the heavens

as starry Sisters, Seven in Constellation.

But work and wait – that eternal fate

for us has not yet come—

and I smile to hear these golden maidens

join me in my hum.

--Ellen H.

*Notes: It was my idea to connect this painting with the seven Pleiades (Seven Sisters constellation); not the painter's (that we know of). Different ancient mythologies say they were the daughters of Atlas or Zeus, set in the sky as stars for burial or to protect them from a pursuer. “The loss of one of the sisters, Merope, in some myths may reflect an astronomical event wherein one of the stars in the Pleiades star cluster disappeared from view by the naked eye.”

And, of another painting of the Pleiades sisters: “Interestingly it shows each connected with their corresponding star by a thread, here perhaps representing the process by which they were turned into stars."