Two poems by Neil Ellman

Self-Portrait

(after the painting by Francis Bacon)

  

Already not an anything worth

I know not the worth I am

tied up in nots and coils of want

I need to know the not I’m in

confused, contorted, misshapen

in a not in a not of nots

whatever the not of my worth

I need to know

whomever, wherever, however

I am or not

the man I used to be

in a not of this world or was

the way it used to be.

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Wherefore Now Ariseth the Illusion of

the Third Dimension

(after the painting by Ivan Albright)

Illusion of shape

reality leaps

light years in an inch of space

flat moon, flat sun

how images are formed

against the sky

the distance between

the eye and mind

measured in a leap of faith

between the conceit

and the conceited lies

the truth of spheres

between the knowing

and the known

reality’s shape                

hold it in a hand

and feel the edges

of the universe.

Author bio: 

Neil Ellman has been nominated forThe Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.  Hundreds of his poems, many of which are ekphrastic and written in response to works of modern and contemporary art, appear in print and online journals, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.