Featuring cherita!


April 13, 2018

Poetry Friday--Ephrastic April, Day 13: "The Poet's Voice"

It's a special day! The doyen of children's poetry, and Guinness World Record holder, Lee Bennett Hopkins, is having a birthday! I've selected a painting by Alice Bailly, titled, "The Poet's Voice," to help celebrate. Mr. Hopkins is a proponent of ekphrasis as is evident in his recently published anthology, World Make Way: New Poems Inspired by Art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you missed his interview on NPR, click here.

Today's ekphrastic cherita is part of the challenge I've set for myself for National Poetry Month. I'm featuring the artwork of women artists, many of whom never received the respect they deserved during their lifetimes. Each piece of art will be paired with a cherita.


"The Poet's Voice" (1923) by Alice Bailly [1872-1938].

the poet's voice

reaches the ears
of the crowd

for some an oracle
for others never getting
beyond the auricle*


© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.

Thanks to Lee for guiding listeners' (and readers') ears (and eyes) to poetry, and for helping shape poets' words so that they survive the passage to brains and hearts. And here's to Poetry Friday participants who share their love of poetry and poets!

To find other birthday treats being served today, visit Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge.


*Auricle = the outer ear

33 comments:

  1. Oh, Diane... I love your cherita, and I love how the second meaning of "auricle" (atrium of heart) also plays into your poem.

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  2. Very apt tribute, Diane - I always love your poetic take on works of art. Thanks for sharing & educating! And so glad you included the link to Lee's wonderful NPR interview.

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    1. I'm a big fan of NPR and I always love when they feature a writers whose work I'm familiar with.

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  3. Hi Diane, I love meeting Alice Bally in this post & in her artwork (watercolor?) "The Poet's Voice, finding the cat, the flowers & seeing what I think are two women, center.
    Is the reader reciting one of their poems, or his own? And your poem is potent - so true. Now I'm going to look up cherita; I have heard that but at this moment, forget. Love.

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    1. I think there may be three women--the three wearing colored or patterned outfits. I could be wrong.

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  4. That is one gorgeous and apt painting, Diane and you made it very special with your cherita, "never getting/beyond the auricle".

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  5. Only a true lover of words could fit oracle and auricle into the same poem. :) Nicely done, Diane!

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    1. Michelle, that was a complete surprise to me! I was looking at a "parts of the ear" illustration and saw the word, auricle and bingo!

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  6. Diane, your cherita reaches my ears and inspires my thoughts. I really like that you're concentrating on female artists. This artwork from the 1920s is wonderful and so is your poem.

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    1. Thanks, Carol! Some great art was made in the 1920s!

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  7. I like that you're celebrating female artists, and what a wonderful piece for your project!

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    1. If we women don't celebrate the forgotten women of art, then who will?

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  8. Wonderful, Diane -- oracle/auricle!! Enjoying your cheritas this month so much. Brilliant art choices. :)

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    1. I've only selected pictures that said something to me.

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  9. I love this cherita--especially the word play at the end.

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    1. Thanks, Kay, I enjoy word play myself, so I was hoping others would, too.

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  10. Beautiful pairing of art and words--and I love the oracle/auricle twist.

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  11. Love your cherita and all your work this month, Diane! I'm laughing that I've never heard the male version of "doyenne" before -- doyen!

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  12. Fun play of words on your poems delivery, and beautiful image. Thanks Diane for introducing me to Alice Bailly!

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    1. Alice Bailly's work is something that I will be going back to. I had also picked out this picture to cherita-ize at some later date: http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=50891 I love the color

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  13. I've been fascinated by different people's ekphrastic poem series this month. It seems like it would be so hard! And you have made it even harder by doing only women artists. Like several others, I love the play on oracle/auricle. It really does fit Lee well!

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  14. Love the play on words - and the fellow in the center almost sort of looks like Lee!

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  15. So educational, this post (I had forgotten what a cherita was too) and so apropos and so uplifting! Not to mention clever.
    : )

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  16. I always learn something amazing from you...such a treat to drop by and learn. And, what a brilliant tribute to our celebrated poet. The art, your cherita....the love the is there is right and good. Thank you for sharing this.

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  17. Bailly's painting and your poem are a perfect match, Diane! As others have mentioned, I love the oracle/auricle pairing.

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