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Sketchbook

a journal for eastern and western forms

 

Free Verse

Poem by Karin Anderson, AU

Painting by Frederick McCubbin 1855-1917, AU

 

 

An Ekphrastic Poem*

 

Lost

 

In the Spring time of your life
you stand lost, alone.
Tears streak cheeks of fading silk
dampen apron's crude coarse calico
as you drown in cruel bush limitlessness
and crow's ahh......ing swooping echoing cries.

"CLARA CLARA!"
Tormented loved ones call your name
but you vanished near the mistletoe
captured by the butterfly.
It looped its kaleidoscope
to your wistful eyes
to zoom higher
higher than a far
far squinting sky
and your net of childhood wishes.

"CLARA CLARA!"
Your name wreathes the sky
drops withering white petals
petals lost in thicket's palette
of grey-blue blenched-green.

Hunger strikes an axe
to wound your willowy frame
and as you crawl
to forage ground nuts and berries
your mind spins
spins apple pie, as it circles
circles sweet spiced cinnamon
stuffed with Mother's love
and billy tea laced
with fuzzy floating snuffs of wattle.

Now you slip
slip into dusk's burial gown
as bush colors drain
from McCubbin's canvas...

But Clara wait!
Bush crackles.
There's a horse, a man!
You are found!
No need to follow bush's lost children
through death's waiting rasping door...

 

*An Ekphrasic poem is a writing, a poem,  that comments upon another art form, for instance a poem about a photograph, a film or a painting. "Lost" is a painting by Artist Frederick McCubbin 1855-1917 - many children were lost and perished in the bush in Australia's early days of settlement).

**In this poem Karin Anderson has fused poetry with a painting and in doing so, she extends the appreciation of another artistic person's creative work, in this case a painting. Frederick McCubbin's painting, "Lost", can be viewed on line at the National Gallery of Victoria site.

View other paintings by Frederick McCubbin

 

Note from Karin Anderson about the poem "Lost"

The McCubbin painting, "Lost" was produced in 1886.  It depicts a girl in the Australian bush; there is a patch of sky on the left hand top corner. The girl seems quite lost in the middle of a blue-green thicket. She is wearing an apron, and although it can hardly be seen, she is clutching mistletoe in her apron. The painting portrays a real historical event. The lost girl was Clara Crosbie; she was found alive in Lilydale, Victoria after spending three weeks in the bush, where she apparently ate berries and found water. Today, the legend of Clara Crosbie's survival, depicted so 'true to life' by McCubbin's masterful painting, Lost, graces many homes and hearts with its sensitivity and bittersweet beauty..." 

 

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