Scott Owens’ most recent poem to appear here was Reclamation (November 2013).

Art Appreciation
By Scott Owens

I take twenty-three students
ages six to eleven,
to the Hickory Museum of Art
and tell them about ekphrastic
poetry and how the word
ekphrasis comes from Greek
and has to do with calling out
the true name and hence
the true meaning of a work
of art and teach them how
to write a poem about
a work of art by noticing
color and shape and form
and other more beautiful things
like memory, meaning, association.
The museum is full of beautiful
works of art with beautiful
names like Blue Skies,
Spring Thaw, Color-Blind Angel,
and it is sheer joy watching
twenty-three young people
marvel at art and reflect
on the possibilities of creation,
but my daughter because she is eight
and curious about all things,
because she is eight and believes
boundaries exist to be pushed,
because she is eight
and wouldn’t waste a chance
to say a bad word and not
get into trouble looks
long and hard at every
beautiful work of art,
at every beautiful name
before choosing to write
about James Harold Jennings’
Bad Girl Beats the Hell Out of the Devil.