Essays, Art and Plays by Dan

In this week’s haiku challenge, we had to compose a surreal poem based on a painting and my entry was:

I play slow jazz now
on a harmonica made
from the moon’s sigh

Here are the editor’s comments about my poem:

I have to admit this poem has stayed with me ever since I first read it. I read it to my family and heard a whisper when I watched the moon each night. From the very first line Dan has brought us into a personal moment. Jazz is known for the improvisational and melancholic atmosphere it creates.

Then the mood of the music connects us with the otherworldly and dreamy feel of Carrington’s painting. This enchanted music is performed ‘on a harmonica’ that can lead us into a surreal space. Even though a harmonica is an earthly object this poem has transformed it into something ephemeral.

Finally there is the evocative line of ‘from the moon’s sigh.’ A sigh is a breath and a release of feeling. Though, by nature of a sigh, the breath is barely there. In Dan’s poem emotion and spirit are made into material objects. The moon has always been a symbol of intuition, femininity and mystery.

This should strengthen the connection to Carrington’s figurative vision in the painting. Being involved in the occult, Carrington created her own set of Tarot cards and many of those symbols are presented in her paintings, including the moon.

Dan has created the feeling of music drawn from the sorrow or longing of celestial bodies. It fits in well with the magic that Carrington included in her art. Dan’s poem and the painting could help us reevaluate our relationship with the earth, the universe and where we fit in.

HAIKU DIALOGUE – Surrealism II – “Self-Portrait” (Inn of the Dawn Horse) – commentary