New Poem--Ekphrastic, August 3rd

Ode to Adele Bloch-Bauer
(Painted by Klimt in 1907)

To have had your radiance,
your swirling symphony of shine,
Oh queen of the golden gown,
incandescent wife of aristocracy.
Uplift your lustrous eyes,
light candles of sparkling silver,
raise your oddly restrained arms
beyond the wall of luminous yellow,
frankincense in your glinting veins,
and nourish the ghosts whirling
around you like a vortex. You
are a meditation on heaven’s
glistening light. Bow down
and be grateful.


Mary Westcott