Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park 117

Rising Incense

Full sunlight can blind.
I prefer the subdued
brightness of Diebenkorn’s

Ocean Park 117.
The yellow on the bottom
is a ground and a base.

It works: black and gray
float on top, oil and smoke
broken up by the frames

of a skylight. Ochre
and lavender are equal
in sweetness. The light

in my bedroom speckles
and dazzles as the wind
moves the leaves

with a shimmering sound.
Ceiling fan is a Buddhist
prayer wheel, as it drones

its mantra to the heavens,
rhythmically, anapests—
ah ah unh, ah ah unh

About This Poem:

• This poem was written in Cindy King’s class at Stockton (Fall 2012), possibly my first attempt at an ekphrastic poem. “I Have Many Sisters” was written in that class, too. It’s an early appearance of the theme of spirituality which returns several times in my chapbook poems.
• I was sitting in my bedroom on a sparkling day with the ceiling fan on when I wrote this. One of my husband’s beautiful paintings hangs over the bed, not a Diebenkorn. Still, the setting all came together for this poem.
• This poem first appeared in Serving House Journal-13 in Fall 2015.