Sketchbook_7-4_JulAug_2012-43_Bernard_Gieske_Ekphrastic_Free_Verse_Mary

Sketchbook

a journal for eastern and western forms

Ekphrastic Free Verse ~ Mary Agnes

Bernard Geiske, US Poet

Robert Henri, US Painter

Mary Agnes

She sits there for her portrait
like so many other children of Dooagh
undisturbed, calmly looking on
with a maturity beyond her seasons.

No wonder whenever she walked along the lane
on this island of Achill off Western Ireland
so many were wont to turn her way.
She was not one to be casually overlooked.

Scraggly are the hills of this island in county Mayo
surrounded by blue-green sea and strands of golden sand
with birds flying up and down its dramatic cliffs
where throaty Celtic is often heard
and the music of pipe bands now thrives.

In Dooagh dwells a delightful and genuine people.
Their life, austere and measured slow,
which nonetheless brought others under its spell
even some with names renown.

Robert Henri lived there and so too Graham Greene
who during his stay authored The Fallen Idol, a novel.
It was the landscapes that caught the eye of Henri
and to this day in museums bear his signature.

Mary Agnes, the color orange favors you well
in tune with your life which lifted spirits high.
Green no doubt is your true life’s theme
bringing new life to your village by the sea.

Painting by Robert Henri (pronounced HEN-rye) from Wikipedia

Robert Henri (25 June 1865 – 12 July 1929) was an American painter and teacher. He was a leading figure of the Ashcan School in art. Henri was a distant cousin of the noted American painter Mary Cassatt. Henri died of cancer in the summer of 1929. He was honored with a memorial exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1931.

Artist Robert Henri came to Achill on a regular basis in the early decades of the 20th century. It was during his early trips to Achill prior to the outbreak of World War I that Henri painted extensively and is reputed to have done portraits of almost all the children in Dooagh village. He bought Corrymore House on the hill above Dooagh in 1924.

Novelist Graham Greene, visited and stayed on Achill Island a number of times in the late 1940s. He wrote parts of the novels The Heart of the Matter and The Fallen Idol in Dooagh, and Achill Island is also said to have inspired Greene to write some of his best poetry. He retained a special affection for Achill Island, which he mentioned frequently in his letters and notes.

For more about Henri, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Henri

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dooagh

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