October 2020
Tom Montag
tmmontag@centurylink.net
tmmontag@centurylink.net
Author's Note: For me, it has certainly been the year of "The Woman in an Imaginary Painting," with a
total of nearly 350 poems in the series now. Was the impulse to examine the loneliness to be found on the other side
of the surface of that imaginary painting due to the Covid-19 Pandemic? I don't know. There is loss among the lovelinesses
in her world. I must say, approaching autumn, that the pace of writing these poems has slowed. I don't know yet what that means.
from "The Woman in an Imaginary Painting"
If only an angel
had come to her
could she have been
the mother of God?
Would we see now
a halo above
her head, the glow
that holiness
bestows? It isn't
easy to say
what the woman
in the painting
might have been
now that she's held
in this pose, this
art's permanence.
from "The Woman in an Imaginary Painting"
Do ghosts roam the museum at night?
Do they stop in front of the woman
in the painting and speak with her?
Does she tell them how she was transformed
to line and color and held in that place
beyond the painting's surface? Do they
tell her what it's like to walk the darkness?
Do they know, does she know, only
someone obsessed with these matters
would ask such questions, or even care?
from "The Woman in an Imaginary Painting"
The moment
the paint dries
entirely
he loses
control:
you might own
the instant
but not what
comes after.
As with this
poem, there
will be a
stillness. It
will be hers,
though, not his,
and it will
not be yours.
©2020 Tom Montag
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