‘If I Were a Blackbird’ (1941), by Colin Middleton (1910 - 1983)
image credit: Ulster Museum, Belfast
Tuesday, 08 February 2022
Yesterday I was privileged to attend an excellent online poetry workshop on 'Art and Ekphrasis', given by the Irish poet and writer, Amanda Bell. If you've read my Artist's Biography, you'll have seen that the topic is one that I have a keen interest in.
If I Were a Blackbird is an ekphrasic poem I wrote during yesterday's writing session and revised a little today. Inspired by Colin Middleton's beautiful painting of the same title, it was the old woman in the shawl who particularly caught my creative imagination.
Quiet street
early autumn
morning
I am poor
barely any money
for food
A closed shop
in that silent
neighbourhood
I stand in front
of its window
looking at the bottles
of wine inside
What am I thinking
I ask myself
for I am not envious
of those who can
afford to buy wine
I covet much more
the warm home
I imagine lies
behind the door
I see beside the shop
I picture the richness
of food and drink
on the table
a family sitting down to
eat; talking about
their plans for the day
Children who will have
slept in cosy beds after
a father's bedtime story
As for me, in my ragged
clothes, bare legs and
worn-out shoes
I only have thread-bare
blankets for comfort
Soon it will be winter,
when the nights are
long and dark
and still I will be poor,
hungry, lonely and cold
moving in and out of cheap
hostels or sleeping rough
on the streets, wretched
in the wind and rain
Will I even survive
another season like that?
If I were a blackbird with wings
I would fly away to a place
of warmth and welcome
where I might find people
showing humanity whom
I might come to love and
who would love me in return
© Carola Huttmann, 07 - 08 February 2022
