Lorenzo & Valluzzi – Baltimore Ekphrasis Project

Dara Lorenzo and CarlaJean Valluzzi traded art and words. Dara shared this piece, entitled “Always in One Place and Not the Other,” with CarlaJean:

In response, CarlaJean wrote this poem:

Contrapposto

Looking through so many
Windows at once
A compartment for every
Molecule to occupy
A cell for every adversary

Always backs turned
Only singing to one another
Cross the picket

Fragmented split level
Beauty          An afterthought
Palm fronds whisper back a frost
Each cerebral ridge
Aglow in emphasis

You are not a special unique snowflake
Unless you find yourself
In the northernmost southern city
As far down as one can stand
Survive beyond the storm         the self
Destructive impulse

Find stars again

* * * * *

CarlaJean shared this poem with Dara:

A Trick of Twilight

I thought I saw you
walking from where
gray sand turns black

the sea lapses over itself,
reluctantly leans back
against insistent foam.

I thought I saw you:
freshly trimmed hair.
Clock hands bent slack.

The whitecaps ferry home belief
as expertly                           sheens crack,
built up                              left unfinished.