Nancy Posey brings a first for Art of Poetry. She is an exhibited artist at the Hickory Museum of Art who also wrote an ekphrastic poem about her art piece.

Embrace by Nancy Posey, colograph

Nancy Posey
EMBRACE
after “Embrace” by Nancy Posey

Remaining incognito, I hover near the wall
where my print hangs, knowing full well
that what I saw, what I still see, may elude
them all. These visitors to the museum
come, invited by artist friends, a spouse,
some for the first time. Seeing a lady cock
her head to the left, then the right, trying
to make sense out of lines, I resist the urge
to show her, to trace the arms wrapped
around the legs drawn into a tight ball.
Instead, I watch her genuine attempt
to make meaning—her own at least—
of this, my simple effort, reminiscent
of ink-stained hands washed clean, paper
plunged into a water bath, laid gingerly
upon the plate awaiting the heavy roller
of the press. All that remained, my name
penciled finely in one corner; in the other
a title, in case they could not see what I saw.

Nancy Posey reads her poem beside her exhibited piece at the Art of Poetry event on June 20, 2015. Photograph courtesy of Roger and Ginny Sanford.