With this issue we are happy to introduce Miriam Atkin as guest  editor for The Poetry Portal. Some of you have met her already as the curator of one of our Ekphrastic poetry events at ARAS in New York.  We also want to thank Ellen Liberatori who began The Poetry Portal and the many poets who have contributed poems inspired by an image from the Archive, most recently Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night".  You can read the poems here and all of our poetry archives here. Welcome Miriam!

-Ami Ronnberg

This spring issue of ARAS Connections inaugurates a new format for the Poetry Portal. Whereas we solicited multiple submissions in the past, we have decided to hone our focus and invite one writer per season who will compose poetry that reflects upon an archetypal image chosen from the archive. The quarterly Poetry Portal publications will correspond with events in our ongoing Ekphrazein Reading Series, which presents ekphrastic writing about ARAS images to the public.

-Miriam Atkin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE BLUE BUTTERFLY I FREQUENTLY SEND
by Venn Daniel

By scenery the room grew
larger than I expected.
This morning's body

disintegrating
in what I thought was a wing
but ended up being an accumulation.

Plumes of smoke
too many cups of coffee
and a terrifying attempt

to bring myself to terms
with a variety of my own thoughts.
How the day

eventually comes
into view and I failing, to hold
throes of passion and despair

in sight long enough
for things to change shape
and how it's not just words

I'm at war with.
The chilling visions of a few
unfortunate men

for as long as I can remember
have kept my sex forced
into an impasse high

with blinding sun
and framed
by the guise of a wall.

Most of my love rests
in faces outside
where I only feel able

in glimpses or short bursts
of animated emotion
to come out

and protrude. I from the scene
of potentials and structures
glint in coagulation.

           3.8.17

 

Venn Daniel is a poet. His work has been published in The Poetry Project Newsletter, This Image Journal, and elsewhere. Venn also makes collage and has most recently published two pieces in collaboration with Sara Jane Stoner, for her book Experience in the Medium of Destruction (Portable Press @ Yo Yo Labs). He is very grateful for his friends and his friends who have been mentors. He invites you to email him at or view the photographs he posts on his Instagram @venn.daniel. He lives in Brooklyn.