Santa Clara Poet Laureate Mike McGee invited some poets to write ekphrastic poems based on the exhibits of San Jose Museum of Art. Ekphrasis is the vivid, often dramatic, verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined.
My piece was based on ’History of Science II’ by Catherine Wagner in the Gibson gallery.
Take a moment to look at the chromogenic print.
For a more immersive experience, please visit the San Jose Museum of Art.
The library of souls
——————————
This is me-
All my emotions sorted into shelves
Then labeled and archived.
One shelf is for my mother-
Who learned early in life
That the only way a woman could live with dignity
Was by earning her own living.
Her face burned in the summer sun
When she walked home from the school she taught in
So she could save money and buy us fruits.
Another shelf is for my father-
Who was stabbed 27 times and left for dead
By his best friend of 27 years.
Here you can see the memories of my sister-
Whose existence I don’t acknowledge anymore.
Because I don’t want to explain
Why I have not spoken to her in years.
The covalent bonds of friendship
Have kept me sane through the years.
Otherwise,
I’d have fallen apart a long time ago.
And right here
Is me organizing my thoughts-
All those solitary moments
I spend overthinking.
Then neatly page mark and
Color code them in my journals.
But the most complicated relationship
I have is with myself -
Love, Hate, Love, Hate, Hate, Love
What if I am not good enough?
What if I don’t deserve happiness
For something I might have done
A long time ago?
Then I say to myself-
You are doing the best you can
In all possible circumstances.
Love, Hate, Love, Hate, Love, Love
Now, take a step back.
Look beyond the wooden frame
Of this curio cabinet.
(This curio cabinet)
There are thousands of stories just like mine
(In the corners, can you see?)
Yours and yours and yours.
An atheneum of human stories,
This is a library of souls.
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