<\/p>\n
No, more a holy meditation
\non surface and stain<\/p>\n
Madonna with Vessel.<\/p>\n
The inland
\nglow of white shoulders<\/p>\n
rivulet of vertebrae<\/p>\n
vestige of one breath-
\ntakingly long<\/p>\n
and sexual arm
\nwhich grasps<\/p>\n
the ledge
\nof the cauldron<\/p>\n
as she curves onward.<\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n
Remember form:
\nnothing more<\/p>\n
than potent omen ~<\/p>\n
pyramid of saucepan top,
\noverflow<\/p>\n
of water bucket, angle of\u00a0 the invisible
\nskin dimpled<\/p>\n
underneath her arranged garment ~<\/p>\n
a light-stroked body,
\nconflicted as rosewater, as clotted cream~<\/p>\n
\u00a0*<\/p>\n
Alma, grace of more
\nthan poor<\/p>\n
Our Lady of the Scullery Shimmer ~<\/p>\n
starlet of
\nreturning questions<\/p>\n
May I serve you?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n *<\/p>\n Perhaps art as polish<\/p>\n gloss of what the photograph<\/p>\n \u00a0pretends in voyeurism.<\/p>\n \u00a0An aperture, a flash<\/p>\n of the nakedly conscious eye ~<\/p>\n \u00a0a part of and apart ~<\/p>\n \u00a0blessing identity until it blinds us.<\/p>\n \u00a0*<\/p>\n \u00a0Once, on a sunlit afternoon<\/p>\n \u00a0a maidservant, an ing\u00e9nue,<\/p>\n \u00a0swept forward ~<\/p>\n \u00a0into what this moment you<\/p>\n in Walla Walla, Soho, Barcelona ~<\/p>\n \u00a0might admire, must revise ~<\/p>\n a woman\u2019s hands: fingernails, blue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Susan Rich<\/a> is the author of three collections of poetry, The Alchemist\u2019s Kitchen<\/a> (2010) <\/em>named a finalist for the Foreword Prize and the Washington State Book Award, Cures Include Travel <\/a>(2006)<\/em>, and The Cartographer\u2019s Tongue \/ Poems of the World <\/a>(2000) <\/em>winner of the PEN USA Award for Poetry.<\/em> She has received awards The Times Literary Supplement of London, Peace Corps Writers and the Fulbright Foundation. Recent poems appear in the Harvard Review,<\/em> New England Review,<\/em> and The Women\u2019s Review of Books. \u00a0 Polishing Brass \u00a0Myra used her housekeeper, Alma Schmidt, as a subject in several of her pictorial photographs of Dutch domestic life. Schmidt wore costumes and posed in a variety of theatrical scenes. No further record of their relationship exists. … Continue reading
\n<\/em>
\n“Polishing Brass” is an ekphrastic poem, based on a photo by Myra Albert Wiggins:<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/kathleenflenniken.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/imgres.jpeg\" "\\"imgres\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"