Tags
Burghclere, Ekiphrastic, Home Front, John Greening, Macedonia, quennet, Raymond Queneau, Sandham Memorial Chapel, Stanley Spencer, Ware Poetry Competition
A quennet- a form invented by Raymond
Queneau in 1975.
This is an Ekiphrastic poem, dealing with the
discussion of a visual work of art. It was commended
in the Ware Poetry Competition, judged by John Greening
and appears (ed) in the subsequent anthology.
It was inspired by a visit to The Sandham Memorial
Chapel at Burghclere, near Basingstoke, which Stanley
Spencer decorated with murals, depicting the
ordinariness of war, on The Home Front and in
Macedonia, where he served as a medical orderly.
The formatting is not quite right as WordPress
doesn’t allow me to centre and retain the spacing,
with the short noun phrases being centred beneath
the long line of 3 noun phrases. The 5 line interlude
with the syllable counts of 2-5 should also be centred….
Nevertheless, you’ll get the idea!
precious horses scavenging boar tortoise company
mosquito nets
protective firebelt unravelled puttee distant Christ
Kalinova katharsis
Macedonian map heavenly tea wounded convoy
smuggled kitten
hotwater bottle
frostbitten foot
jam sandwiches
magenta bathtubs
traumatised scrubbing
iodine painting
bilberry feast
unravelled company Macedonian mosquito precious kitten
wounded Christ
stuartshafran said:
Superb!
Candia said:
How kind! The murals are inspirational.
davidrpharmer said:
The Sandham Memorial is well worth a visit