The Stafford Challenge, Day 34

Today, another ekphrastic poem . . . not of Grant Wood this time but rather of one of my own digital art pieces, Mona Lisa SG. This is a soundplay tanka (5/7/5/7/7), with a bit of rhyme in the last two lines, both internal and external. Madrigal in M and G After Mona Lisa SG by Vince Gotera (2017) Mona Lisa’s new Gibson guitar: gold SG, glimmering sunset, magic hour, enigmatic smile, G minor glam music. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Vince Gotera, Mona Lisa SG (2017) Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

The Stafford Challenge, Day 33

Today, I offer an elegy for my old friend, the poet Nick Carbó, who passed away in October 2024. Nick was a Filipino American poet who was proficient in English, Spanish, and Filipino. I included all three languages in my poem; I also chose the ovillejo form because it is Spanish. The poem pays tribute to Nick's quirky sense of humor. Here's an explanation of the ovillejo form in the blog Write Better Poetry by Robert Lee Brewer. Basically, it's 3 couplets and a quatrain, rhymed aa bb cc dccd, with the last line combining lines 2, 4, and 6 (the short lines earlier). There's a challenging syllable count: 8/3/8/3/8/3/888X — X being the sum of the repeated 3 lines) — also, lines 2, 4, and 6 can have 4 syllables instead of 3. Whew! Toast to Nick Carbó: An Ovillejo Ang tunay na lalaki . . . yo, Nick Carbó! Nos haces felices. ¡Salud! You rock, dude. In our hearts, your best endeavors live forever. Your sharp poems and prose will never die, Secret Asian Man. You’re home. Excuse this loko-loko poem. Nick Carbó, you rock! Dude, live forever! • “Ang tunay na lalaki” . . . The real man (Filipino) . . . also the main     character of Nick Carbo's poetry book Secret Asian Man (2000). • “Nos haces felices. ¡Salud!” . . . You make us happy. Cheers! (Spanish) • ”loko-loko” . . . silly (Filipino), cf. “loco” . . . nutty, crazy (Spanish) —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] The photo above is from Nick Carbó's author page on facebook. I'm grateful to RJ Clarken for writing an ovillejo in The Stafford Challenge facebook group a few days ago, my introduction to this intricate poetic form. Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

The Stafford Challenge, Day 32

Today, another ekphrastic poem on Grant Wood's painting Spring in the Country (1941, his final year), a companion piece to his Spring in Town that I wrote on about three weeks ago here. My usual curtal sonnet, in full rhyme this time except for the last word, with ten-syllable lines. Childhood Memory After Spring in the Country by Grant Wood (1941) Fluffy white clouds are ranged in rank and file, like the puffy plants the boy — Grant himself — is sowing, life regimented by spring arriving as the earth itself turns. While the mother digs holes in the soil, herself a sturdy twin to the white tree standing behind, the father is steering a team of horses, hard going to this high shelf. Grant’s boyish world: stolid mom, commanding dad, lush dark Iowa soil, headstrong dreams                                             of spring, always young. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Grant Wood, Spring in the Country (1941) Click here to read my previous poem on Spring in Town, the companion piece to this painting. Might be fun to compare the two paintings and the two poems. Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

The Stafford Challenge, Day 31

Today, a shadorma about one of life's frequent little frustrations. The shadorma is a Spanish form using six lines with the following syllable counts: 3/5/3/3/7/5. Bleepin’ Smoke Detectors! — a shadorma Beep beep . . . argh! Batteries needed. Double A? Triple A? Nine-volt? Quick run to the store. All fixed. Beep beep . . . argh! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] I hope your day is going better than mine! A nice light poem does help to brighten the day. Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

The Stafford Challenge, Day 30

Another ekphrastic poem today . . . again of a Grant Wood painting: Arnold Comes of Age, a 1930 portrait he did of Arnold Pyle, his student and later studio assistant. Art historians surmise that Wood was gay and that this painting shows this. He was evidently romantically attracted to Arnold, who was straight and didn't return Wood's attentions. There are some clues in the painting (shown below). There are two young men skinnydipping in the lower right of the scene, and a butterfly is landing on Arnold's right sleeve (Wood studied painting in Paris and at the time he was there, "papillon," the French word for "butterfly," was the slang then for a gay man). Arnold's belt is emblazoned with the initials "AP" and Wood's artist signature is right next to it. There are other clues as well. My poem is Arnold Pyle's response to all of this . . . it's a curtal sonnet with strict 10-syllable lines, and the language is more discursive and talky than imagistic. Arnold Pyle Speaks After Arnold Comes of Age by Grant Wood, 1930 I’m still grateful that my boss Grant Wood — yes, he’s only my boss — gave me this birthday present by painting a portrait of me. Learned a lot from Grant: applying gesso, say. Not as easy as you’d think . . . it may need twelve very thin coats. Or painting wee tidbits in a piece, like the butterfly in my portrait. That’s French slang, people say, for “queer.” But a Monarch did land on me. Or those nude swimmers. Again, just some boys                                             we saw. Not guilty! —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] I'm grateful to Ignacio Ardaude, an art historian specializing in gayness in art, for this topic. As you may recall from earlier Grant Wood poems, I mentioned that I was giving a presentation at a Grant Wood Country Forum zoom a few days ago, and Mr. Audarde was also a presenter, focusing on gayness in Grant Wood's art and life. I did some research and found that other researchers have also analyzed this painting in this light. I'm particularly happy with my A rhyme above, again an enjambed rhyme: yes/he's and gesso. And also the ending C rhyme of me and guilty, not for structural reasons but rather for a topical one . . . Arnold may have been worried about homosexuality being a crime during that time period. Grant Wood, Arnold Comes of Age (1930) Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Ingat, everyone.  ヅ