Ekphrastic #2: The fractals of change

My poem on a glass art cube

“Mountain Haze” By Jon Kuhn—cut, laminated, and polished glass; Fort Wayne Museum of Art

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Earlier this month, I shared about my inspiration to write Ekphrastic poems as emotional responses to specific glass pieces I viewed at our local museum of art’s glass wing. The second piece that struck me was shaped in a perfect diamond and housed a central geometric design whose image and colors morphed, depending on your perspective and the angle at which you viewed the piece.

At times, the colors were kaleidoscopic, and tiny fractals of light emanated from the entire piece. My poem today focuses on all of these elements, and I hope it resonates with you:

Walk around me—
See the fractals
Of change.
I shift
In color
And complexity.

Take time
To look closer.
Stay with me
And I will show you
The edges that
Have softened with
Distance,
Space,
and time.

You can gaze at my splendor
But you will never
Touch my center—
The core
Of where
The brightest,
Best pieces of me

Come together.

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