Georgia O’Keeffe photography exhibit, Cincinnati Art Museum 02/07/2023
art lives in the dead, she said,
in bones and in the shadows
of skulls. Lines define truth,
center it between intimate
detail and the remote beyond.
I follow the frames
around the space, ladders
against walls, Georgia
in white dress, rectangles
yawning into dark mystery,
doors and doors and doors.
Arrested by a trio of big
sage, I peer closer at a photo
of a single bush, no, a nymph
in bas relief. Wooded arms breach
air, reach skyward, shrouded truth
in a bark-wrapped smile, ancient
wisdom searching for an exit.
The second photo frames two more,
in synchronous orbit, forever captive
in time by the artist’s camera
in an oracular shout, each line
a connection, sky, land, sun,
shadow, a triune goddess in secret
dance: sagacious, secret doorways.
Janet E. Irvin is a career educator and a recent inductee member of the Greenville Poets in Ohio. Under the name J.E. Irvin, she is the author of six mystery/thriller novels. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in print and online publications, including Hawaii Pacific Review, and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.
