Two yachts and a pleasure steamer
Caught in the offing amidst a squall
The squall blew in suddenly
Catching the sailors off guard
Standing off to avoid wrecking
on a lee shore, they battle big waves
The waves are ultramarine blue
Starved of light by the red-tinged clouds
And yellow sunset light beyond the clouds
Trumpets the coming of nightfall danger
They weren’t expecting danger on this Sunday sail
Sailors struggle, passengers huddle on the steamer
Pray for those in peril on the sea
Two yachts and a pleasure steamer…
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Melissa Lemay in Poetics invites us to write an Ekphrastic poem selecting from a number of paintings (unidentified as yet) before revealing who the artist was and something about his career. Emil Nolde, it turns out, was an ardent Nazi who attempted to climb the ladder of art success at a time when the tide was turning against his expressionist style in favour of the insipid efforts to which all propaganda are likely to produce.
Melissa asks us whether, upon learning about Emil Nolde’s unpleasant politics, we feel differently about his art.
I think a man’s politics are separate from his art unless he is using his art as propaganda and then as I say above, the quality will suffer because it doesn’t come from the heart.
Nevertheless, I can think of people, still alive today, whose work and life I don’t want to support because their politics are abhorrent. Emil Nolde no longer needs our support and I feel no different about the work – only the man…