Neil Ellman


Midnight Blue

(after the Barnett Newman painting)

The universe revealed
in a simple, single line
elegant in blue

(Where)

a billion stars and galaxies
compressed in narrow
edgeless space

(Where)

words said at the first
consumed by fire
drift to silent ash

(Where)

simple cells
crawled from the sea
inventing life and death

(Where)

gods and goddesses
conceived in light
turned to mythic stone

(Where)

empires rose
condemned to burial
in desert sands

The universe revealed
without a word or shape—
elegant in blue.


Neil Ellman lives and writes in New Jersey (USA). Although he writes about many subjects, he is particularly drawn to the ekphrastic approach, basing his poems on favorite and iconic art works of the twentieth century.
 
 
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