Serious Pink

by Sharon Dolin

Poetry. "These cool, beautiful intelligent lyrics take seeing (and especially seeing paintings) as metaphor for everything mistakes, regrets, betrayal, despair; and finally are, I think, almost more like paintings than poems-paintings that, as Howard Hodgkin says about the pictures he longs to make will 'speak for themselves'"—Jean Valentine.

Genres: Poetry

82 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2003

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really great set of poems to read when you are looking at some of the art pieces they were inspired by. I really liked some of the different shapes the poems took. There's also a Ghazal, which is one of my favorite poem forms so that was a plus. I give 4 stars to this Ekphrastic poetry book.

[Claire S]

Sounds like fun also! Mentioned in the notes of Matthew Thorburn's FROM THE LOOKOUT AT WELLFLEET in 'Diagram'.

[Janée Baugher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The full title is actually, "Serious Pink: Ekphrastic Poems" which is useful for those of us obsessed with reading all ekphrastic writing. While "ekphrastic" these poems don't actually evoke the paintings which influenced them, nor do the poems seem to be homages to the art. Though, it's evident that the visual art was a springboard for this writer. Is it important for authors to name the paintings that prompted them to the page? Must there be imagery in poems that sprung from images (paintings) themselves?