An Item on my Old Bucket List by Rose Mary Boehm

*Niagara*, 1857 by Frederic Edwin Church
Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Niagara—some say the name is a bastardised form of the Iroquois “Onguiaahra.” They say it means “The Strait.” Now “Niagara” has become associated with a thunderous image. That I can feel.

I only ever imagined its deafening voice,
its power, its white foam, its cold spray,
imagined myself in a slicker with a hood–
preferably blue (or red)–
on a boat, getting nearer, nearer, nearer,
before we are being sucked into unimaginable
depths, Charybdis and Scylla,
my fellow passengers quiet
in the face of such a relentless force.

When I close my eyes
I see dark clouds pulling up,
attracted like magnets to a cauldron
of deep water, angry foam, killer rocks.
The door to Hades.
Who will pay the ferryman?

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.

Rose Mary Boehm is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru, and author of two novels as well as eight poetry collections. Her poetry has been published widely in mostly US poetry reviews (online and print). She was three times nominated for a ‘Pushcart’ and once for ‘Best of Net’. DO OCEANS HAVE UNDERWATER BORDERS? (Kelsay Books July 2022), WHISTLING IN THE DARK (Cyberwit July 2022), and SAUDADE (December 2022) are available on Amazon. Also available on Amazon is a new collection, LIFE STUFF, published by Kelsay Books November 2023. https://www.rose-mary-boehm-poet.com/

Read about the origins, pronunciation, and variants of the Word Niagara

Hearing the World Differently by Kate Young

The gallery lies in silence.
Clusters of faces pause
canvas to canvas
lips miming words,
the unheard musings of the many.

I inhale their movement,
jackets and backpacks jostle
the canvas to my right
the vertical drop of Niagara Falls
drawing us into its power.

The tide turns.
My eyes conjure sounds
only I can hear,
decibels of cyan and teal
the roar of acrylic licking the frame.

I taste the grit of salt on teeth,
sea-spray fresh on my face.
Violet tones colour my mood,
the distinctive tang of oil on wood.
I open my senses, hear it all.

Kate Young lives in England and enjoys writing poetry, painting and playing the guitar and ukulele. Her poems have appeared in various webzines, magazines, and Chapbooks. Her work has also featured in the anthologies Places of Poetry and Write Out Loud. Her pamphlet A Spark in the Darkness has been published by Hedgehog Press and her next pamphlet Beyond the School Gate is due to be published in May 2024. Find her on Twitter @Kateyoung12poet.

Nik Wallenda Walks a Wire Across Niagara Falls by Diana Cole

Into a theatre of wind and mist 
            a cable dips, disappears. 
 
He moves steadily, 
            each step shortening
                        the improbable.
                                    He dissolves into thunder.
 
The camera loses      then finds his face 
            soaked, focused 
                        on distance relenting.
 
In shoes his mother made 
            elk-skin suede
                        his feet curl along the wire. 
 
He tells the cameraman 
            his arms are numb.
                        Weighs the long pole
                                    in sighs, side to side.
                                     
And we can see 
            the waters waiting
                        the letting go
                                 the urge to.
 
He inches ahead
            each second of inertia 
                        a pinpoint 
                                    from which we too
                                                step forward.

This poem was previously published in Muddy River Poetry Review.

This poem, inspired by Frederic Edwin Church’s 1857 painting Niagara, was also published in The Ekphrastic Review, October 20, 2023 in their Ekphrastic Challenges series. Read about ekphrastic poetry in Niagara.

Diana Cole, a Pushcart Prize nominee, has published in numerous journals including Poetry East, Spillway, Main Street Rag, Cider Press Review, Friends Journal, The New Verse News and Orison Books. Her chapbook, Songs By Heart was published in 2018 by Iris Press and her latest book, Between Selves, in 2023 by Indian Press, Cyberwit.net. Recently, she was awarded 2^nd place in the Notable Works 2024 Poetry Initiative. She is a senior editor for The Crosswinds Poetry Journal.

Spellbound by Elaine Sorrentino

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.

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.

To Frederic Edwin Church Regarding Niagara Falls by Portly Bard

So much like ours, your river’s course
becomes the path of nature’s force
embracing ever lower plane
and carving ever deeper main

except where soil is bared to rock
or rise becomes a stubborn block
that, barring flood, will be its bound
or island it will flow around

as ending tributaries merge
and hasten more the mounting surge
to roar of sudden, fated falls,
the splendor eye so well recalls

by glimmer of prismatic twist
in fountain of its risen mist.

Portly Bard.
Old man. Ekphrastic fan.
Prefers to craft with sole intent…
of verse becoming complement…
…and by such homage being lent…
ideally also compliment.

Ekphrastic joy comes not from praise
for words but from returning gaze
far more aware of fortune art
becomes to eyes that fathom heart.

Niagara Falls Poetry Project

An Item on my Old Bucket List by Rose Mary Boehm

Like this:

Hearing the World Differently by Kate Young

Like this:

Nik Wallenda Walks a Wire Across Niagara Falls by Diana Cole

Like this:

Spellbound by Elaine Sorrentino

Like this:

To Frederic Edwin Church Regarding Niagara Falls by Portly Bard

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: