The Zingara Project

Tag: Under the Influence: Musing about Poems and Paintings

  • All That Remains: Inspired by Van Gogh’s Bedroom by Kim Baker 

    All That Remains: Inspired by Van Gogh’s Bedroom by Kim Baker 

    One wonders who, alongside Vincent himself,
    stares down upon the empty bed.
    Two framed guardian angels?
    Or the visages of brothers, of lovers?
    They are all that remain to witness
    this hauntingly serene scene.

    Moon-glow window partly ajar.
    Towel resigned on a nail near one door.
    Patiently anticipating painting smocks, 
    signature straw hat at the hooked dowel.
    Hairbrush, pitcher, carafe
    atop an apprehensive table, waiting.

    Chair pulled close to the head of the bed
    as if someone had just been reading 
    a soothing children’s story to Vincent
    or pleading in a blanket of red woolen urgency
    robin’s egg blue reasons for Vincent 
    to skip the long walk to the wheat field 
    accompanied only by the cold steel of peace.

    —

    When she isn’t writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, Kim works to end hunger and violence against women. A poet, playwright, photographer, and NPR essayist, Kim publishes and edits  Word Soup, an online poetry journal (currently on hiatus) that donates 100% of submission fees to food banks. Kim’s chapbook of poetry, Under the Influence:  Musings about Poems and Paintings, is available from Finishing Line Press.      

  • Painting Itself Red by Kim Baker

    The job of the poet is to render the world – to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do. 

    ~Mark Van Doren 

    Everything here is red,
    adorning scores of farmhouses, barns, and doors.
    The Wandering Moose Café and train station.
    The post office and Stage Coach Tavern.

    I wonder about a town that paints itself red.
    Insinuates a crimson theology in an indomitable land
    of evergreen groves, gray stone walls, and
    the righteous white of every Congregational Church.
    Perhaps the inhabitants strayed away 
    from shades of specters and blending in 
    when Dr. Dean built Red Mill in 1750.
    Maybe they needed cerise to rival the Gold family
    or hollyhock to stand out up on Cream Hill.
    In some towns, maybe red is a fetish,
    the iconic covered bridge representing everything.

    I compose on one of the many red benches
    spread here along the Housatonic River,
    perfect places for poets and other lovers,
    searching for an unsentimental shade.
    The cardinal gone from the maple tree.
    The wheelbarrow waiting for spring.
    The brick of my heart.

    —

    When she isn’t writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, Kim Baker works to end hunger and violence against women. A poet, playwright, photographer, and NPR essayist, Kim publishes and edits Word Soup, an online poetry journal (currently on hiatus) that donates 100% of submission fees to food banks. Kim’s chapbook of poetry, Under the Influence:  Musings about Poems and Paintings, is available from Finishing Line Press.      

  • Where the Peaches Are Always Ripe by Kim Baker

    And then a knife
    lifting skin from a peach
    paring away the succulence
    as if fruit never bruises
    and she lost the rhythm
    for just a moment
    the aroma taking her back
    that summer
    his skin
    her sublime laughter

    And then the knife did what knives will do
    continued cutting
    even when she was already bleeding
    down to her very bone
    and she is alone
    his heart stopped long ago
    long before this peach
    this knife

    Her children never understood why
    she wouldn’t come live with them
    preferred to make her own bed
    and lie in the fragrance of what was

    So that all she can do in this existential minute
    is watch the bright red of her life
    flow through her fingers
    stain her apron
    empty her of all she knew
    watch it descend

    like a staircase to another place
    where the peaches are always ripe
    and she can swallow them whole
    because wasting the skin
    the pit of grace
    is just too human

    —

    When she isn’t writing poetry about big hair and Elvis, Kim works to end violence against women. A poet, playwright, photographer, and NPR essayist, Kim publishes and edits Word Soup, an online poetry journal that donates 100% of submission fees to food banks. Kim’s chapbook of poetry, Under the Influence: Musings about Poems and Paintings, is now available from Finishing Line Press.
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