Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art
Listen to Elaine Sorrentino reciting Spellbound
The last time I knew innocence
I was surrounded by breathtaking
steadily booming over the falls
misting our awe-struck faces
confirmation we are mere specks
in the realm of natural wonders.
I could have lingered there forever
drinking in its mesmerizing thunder
unknowingly balanced on the fraying
thread between well-being and illness
before scalpels, needles, chemical
treatment made their grand entrance;
momentarily living in the presence
of ferocious power, I could not get enough.
This poem, inspired by Frederic Edwin Church’s 1857 painting Niagara, was first published in The Ekphrastic Review, October 20, 2023 in their Ekphrastic Challenges series. Read about ekphrastic poetry in Niagara.
Elaine Sorrentino has been published in Ekphrastic Review, Minerva Rising, Willawaw Journal, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Writing in a Women’s Voice, The Poetry Porch, ONE ART: a journal of poetry, Agape Review, Haiku Universe, Sparks of Calliope, Muddy River Poetry Review, Panoply, Etched Onyx Magazine, and at wildamorris.blogspot.com.