Two Poems by Neil Ellman

Garden

(after the painting by Adolph Gottlieb)

What grows soon dies
what dies transforms
imagination to a dream
a dream to flowers
in the garden of the sun
transmogrified
soon grows again to die
again in dreams
of solitude and light
until the silence of the end
where flowers grow
to die at last alone
in a sepulcher
of fading light.




The False Mirror

(after the painting by Rene Magritte)

Such arrogance
In the random spray of sprks
that constitute a thought
create a symphony
from separated notes
and waves of air
a vision made of specks of light
that register behind the eye
as something other
than it truly is
the mind connects the dots--
such impudence that sees reality
in the muddle of the stars
the future in a cup of tea.




Neil Ellman, a poet from New Jersey with almost 1,000 published poems to his credit, has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Rhysling Award.  His poems appear in print and online journal, anthologies and chapbooks throughout the world.