Black Dog Enters the Sea of Monet
by Lynn Wagner
Lilies span the triptych a full forty feet. What keeps
my heart awake, the painter says, is colorful silence.
A dragonfly alights in a blur on black dog’s nose
yet Monet sees none of this. The whole canvas
now a bluer blue. Black dog drifts
out of the frame. She casts a wet shadow
while her paws pedal slow circles under water,
a world of violet and blues and greens, hint
of pink lotus that part with black dog’s calm
paddling. She cuts through the clouds of heaven
like a purple storm pressed upon liquid
skin. Clouds split and coalesce in her passing.
This swim, a silent running – one long perpetual wave
Lynn Wagner is the author of the chapbook, No Blues This Raucous Song. Her poems have appeared in Shenandoah, Subtropics, West Branch, Cavewall and other journals. She earned an MFA in Poetry from the University of Pittsburgh and lives and writes in Denver, Colorado where she teaches. poetry at Lighthouse Writers Workshop. Find her at https://lynnwagner.com.
See what happens when you click below.
What surprising, fascinating stuff can you tell us about the origin, drafting, and/or final version of “Black Dog Enters the Sea of Monet”? A friend took me to the Monet show at Denver Art Museum as a birthday present. Throughout the whole show I was salivating to see the water lilies. The exhibition had smaller ones but not the large paintings I remembered from abroad. I am working on a series of black dog poems so she entered in. The exact painting is “Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond” at the MoMA. This poem benefitted from a workshop and a trusted poetry friend—thanks Chris, thanks Cate!
Check out the write-up of the journal in The Writer.
Matter Press recently released titles from Meg Boscov, Abby Frucht, Robert McBrearty, Tori Bond, Kathy Fish, and Christopher Allen. Click here.
Matter Press is now offering private flash fiction workshops and critiques of flash fiction collections here.
Submissions
Poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction/prose poetry submissions are now open. The reading period for standard submissions closes again June 15, 2023. Submit here.
Upcoming
08/21 • Annie Marhefka
08/28 • Jamey Temple
09/04 • Joanna Acevedo
09/11 • Mykyta Ryzhykh
09/18 • Anna Pembroke
09/25 • Matt Barrett
10/02 • Tommy Dean
10/09 • Deborah Thompson
10/16 • Nicolette Jane