Poetry Challenge The Arnolfini Marriage

It’s day 7 of the my person challenge to blog each day for a week on Bookstains.  As I haven’t put a poetry challenge on for a long time I thought that today was a good as time as any.  The Arnolfini Portrait is a very famous painting, painted on oak panel by Dutch artist Jan Van Eyck in 1434.  The painting is also known as The Arnolfini Wedding, The Arnolfini Double Portrait, The Arnoldfini Marriage and The Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife. 

Giovanni Arnolfini is presumed to be an Italian merchant posing with his wife at his house in Bruges.  The painting is considered to be one of  the most original and complex paintings and a lot of illusionist painting techniques were used in it.

The challenge is to write either a poem or a Haiku about the painting.  More detailed information can be found about this painting if you need inspiration

How to enter;-

1.  Write your poem and link it to Bookstains (and a mention).  You include the button if you want.  All poems are themed so make sure that your poem is appropriate  and make it CLEAR that  your poem is for The Bookstains  individual challenge if you are also entering it in a challenge elsewhere. 

2.  In return for linking with me I will put your poem on Bookstains, mentioning your site and Tweeting your poem.  I will also promote your poem at the end of any post I write on my art based blog echostains.

The poems can be in any form including Haiku.  They can be as serious or as humorous as you like.  One liners won’t count

The Arnolfini marriage  image here

Poetry Challenge: And then he/she kissed me

This poetry challenge is based upon the very famous painting by Gustave Klimt – ‘The Kiss.  This iconic painting with its rich layers of gold and stylish sensuous lines emits opulence.

“The woman is especially depicted by turn as emotional joy bringer, temptress and child bearer.  The bodies fused together as one emphasis their unity.
Klimt loves hands and uses them expressively in his paintings. Also his use of gold, entwined couples and …..”(read the rest of my post on echostains about this painting)

The challenge is to write a poem or Haiku about this painting using he/she/.  It can be as short or as long as you like BUT it must be written for this particular challenge and linked to this challenge only.  You may use the image as a link if you like, but the challenge must be linked to Bookstains. 

That’s all there is to it.  I will add your poem to this challenge page, plug your blog and give it a tweet.  I will also update my echostains blog when a new poem arrives.  Good luck with this one – it should be very interesting indeed!

Happy birthday Gustave Klimt (read my post about Klimt and his paintings on echostains)

Image from here

The first poem is a Haiku and comes from the darkly Gothic Wendy Woo who has a wonderfully mysterious blog – please look! http://wendydark.wordpress.com/

Kiss

A kiss of dear death

Sweet black lips caressing

Withdrawing last breath

© Wendy Woo 2011

Dear Reader I read it ‘My Fault’ by Billy Childish’

I have recently  finished reading  ‘My Fault’ by artist/poet/writer and musician Billy Childish and I am now  half way through his second book Notebooks of a Naked Youth.   My Fault is about growing up – the hard way.  Childish writes forcibly and sometimes brutally as his alter ego Steven Hamperson.   There is so much honesty and at times bitterness (who can blame him) that I can only marvel at the sheer force of his personality and his survival instinct.  Molested by a family member, misunderstood and constantly put down by his mother, father and brother and prey to local bullies, Childish lives in a world of deprivation (his father drinks all the money) and seems to be  blamed and scapegoated for all that goes wrong in his dysfunctional family.

Theres no escape from the bullies even at school where dyslexic Childish takes many a bashing from the teachers with their lack of understanding and some real low lifes.  At times this is a tough book to read.  It’s tinged with sadness but there are some lighter moments which mostly come from Childish’s observations about the strange people he encounters. 

 Childish is known for his poetry, his minimal involvement with Stuckism, his many bands and his Sunday painting and printmaking.  He is actually famous in a non famous kind of way.  He is a chameleon who cannot be really pinned down.  He is all things to all people – yet remains apart, non conformist and highly individual.  His name was even emblazoned on a tent which disappeared into a puff of smoke (Tracey Emin’s)  Childish is relentless in the non pursuit of non fame.  For example, every time one of his bands becomes a bit too popular he disbands and forms another.

One of the most vibrantly drawn characters in the book is his father, who I imagine as a kind of Pat Mustard  (the wayward milkman in ‘Father Ted) with the  controlling grip of perhaps a Phil Spector/ Don Arden (though he has nothing to do with music). The relationship Childish has with his mother (Juney) is another interesting one as is the unfriendly sibling rivalry with his brother who always knows better , has the appearence of doing  better and never hesitates to tell him so.

All in all a jolly good read.  Not exactly light reading but not too heavy either.  Though I expect the pinch of salt you will need to take with regards to the characters will be either minute  – or non existent.

Book images here and here

Woodcut by Childish and website here