Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Chiaroscuro



Bathed in Blue...
Powdered, Mothlike.
Love, sprawled across her afternoon room...
Heady with the stench of rotting winter figs
and half eaten stubs of nicotine...
Her skin dressed like a broken filigree
Painted with marks he left behind
Dabbed with dry saliva
Kisses and dust...
By Nitesh Mohanty

Sometimes you find words on Facebook that actually move you. I read this poem by Nitesh on a quiet afternoon and it described something that until now I had only acutely sensed. I was moved by the way he painted with his words. The raw emotion, the smell, the light, it all became real for a moment and took my breath away. I asked him to give it a title and he chose 'Chiaroscuro' an Italian word which refers to the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. A beautiful word to crown a beautiful poem.

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