Oberlin College Library - Ryan E. Holman

RYAN E. HOLMAN

"Come and See"

"Come and see" said my uncle.
I stopped feeding the cows in the barn and followed him

out beyond the field in the haze
with an odd tinge of jaundice on the horizon.

Sunset approached, though everything was veiled
by the dusty mist that tinted everything.

He pointed up at our long shadows
streteched behind us.

The sun was scarelet and scattered
into an amorphous shape like a bloody cloud.

If I squinted, it almost seemed like a giant rose,
hanging impossibly in the cerulean sky.

And the more I looked at it, the clearer it became,
blooming fresh beauty in the dusklight.

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:
This piece was written looking at a poster of Dali's 1958 painting, The Meditative Rose, which hangs on my wall. With this poem I wanted to explain the impossibility presented by Dali's work without overshadowing the painting itself. I also wanted to prove that while there can be an explanation for everything, it doesn't always have to take away the surreal magic of the explained occurence.