Magpie Tales comes to us this week with with a prompt from Leonardo da Vinci.
There are so many mysteries surrounding this painting: I simply surrendered to the wondering as well. What poetry does this painting inspire in you?
For centuries your face remains
your mystery intact
will you, please, just
once look my way
and help me with
these facts ~
Will I find some new message
in your centuries old smile,
I wonder, if I write of them here,
today?
Will I come to know what it is
I am hungry for by the way
you look away, I wonder?
Will I learn the correct way
to lower my hand - palm down,
flat - just there, I wonder ~
to be wise, to stay around
to stop wandering away
from wonder....
should, well, harsh word
and laughter scratchs
my gut awww hawww
hawww hawwww and it
wipes my wonder way?
Did you wonder?
Mona Lisa?
Did you ever wonder?
Did you ever sit without knowing
and wish, for once, you would know
beyond measure and once you thought
you did and said anything you wished
you hadn't for it proved
all those white lies your brother
told about you suddenly to
be glaring truths.
For centuries your face remains
your mystery intact
will you, please, just
once look my way
and help me with
these facts ~
I sit amongst
some very nicey nice
women here and I wonder ~
Do any of them know your
face any better than I?
Have they noticed you look like
an island amidst islands -
a birdless hideaway, wholly passionate
yet holy bored and sleepy and
I wonder ~ I wonder
For centuries your face remains
your mystery intact
will you, please, just
once look my way
and help me with
these facts ~
= = = = =
Follow me on Twitter: @JulieJordanScot
Upper La Cresta Sojourn is being written today - on March 28, 2011 - a book-length poem. You may join in this once-in-a-lifetime poetry event by offering poetry prompts, words, phrases or your physical presence if you live in Bakersfield, California, where Julie Jordan Scott will be traveling around Upper La Cresta to write of her day, One Woman's Day ~ a testimony to the sacredness of daily witness as in the model of Bernadette Mayer's Landmark 1978 long form, book length poem Midwinter Day which was written on December 22, 1978. Visit JulieJordanScott.com to be updated throughout the day and to see where the Sojourn has taken Julie so you may join her.
The beauty in it is we will always be left with nothing but wonder!
Posted by: Kristen Haskell | March 28, 2011 at 02:30 PM
She certainly has made many people wonder. Well written.
Posted by: Marilyn | March 28, 2011 at 02:45 PM
Beautiful wonderment you have presented here with such eloquence and vivid details, Julie!
Posted by: Laurie Kolp | March 28, 2011 at 05:59 PM
Really...really good...and good gosh, please just look our way. Great job. Vb
Posted by: Versebender | March 28, 2011 at 06:32 PM
"please, just once look my way" Love that. Great!
Posted by: DebbyMc | March 28, 2011 at 08:07 PM
I like these questions and thoughts. Thanks for getting my mental gears going this morning.
Posted by: Cosmos Cami | March 29, 2011 at 09:01 AM
She's held her secret well and you've written it well!
Posted by: Tumblewords | March 29, 2011 at 08:02 PM
I often wonder, when my Ada's smiling, what dire plan she is hatching for me next! LOL
Posted by: Cad | March 31, 2011 at 10:27 AM
Beautiful piece... if only she would share a few facts, maybe the mystique would blur.
Posted by: Reflections | March 31, 2011 at 09:30 PM
A very stimulating piece.
Posted by: Lucy Westenra | April 01, 2011 at 02:20 AM