Night Shadows, 1921

As many days as I can in April, I will be writing a poem to celebrate Poetry Month. This is an ekphrastic poem based on a drawing by Edward Hopper. I drew inspiration from Amy Ludwig VanDerWater's lovely book, Poems are Teachers. In this case, p. 7 "Let Art Inspire."

Night Shadows, 1921

-- Edward Hopper

Far below, a man on a deserted sidewalk
scurries quickly, only one, and it’s late,
so late the bar on the corner is locked and dark,
so late the streetlight throws a crisp black
onto each corner. There will be moments like this:
no color, just tone that flattens
into planes of light and darkness.
But there’s another person, too, maybe it’s you
at the open window three floors above peering down,
a silent watcher. Briefly, until he moves from the
light into the dark, you occupy each other’s stories:
for you, he is a man traversing a square of light, a man
whose story is unknown, unknowable;
for him, something more complex: he has simply been seen.
How many times are we seen, even if just briefly?
How many times do we enter
someone else’s story thinking
we are the star of our own? We become
a brief image, maybe even a metaphor.

– Steve Peterson