The Penitent Mary Magdalene

An Imitation Prompt

El Greco, The Penitent Mary Magdalene

Sharing a draft I wrote this morning based on the above painting by El Greco:

A repenting Magdalene! I absquatulate, 
which I’m known for when others need

alone time—as you seem to need, Maria, 
for Greco gave you a whole mountain to pray 

but no shirt! Your nakedness blinds, 
announcing the daylight striking through

temporal clouds. Your priestly hand cups
the skull of some bloke turned brown 

from years in earth, clay bronzing his knocker. 
Why stretch between heaven and hell, 

sister? Why put your breasted heart 
between? Inhabitants in the valley await

your descent, your fluttering visions, your
wild eyes, and your flashing, transcendent wrist.

It’s modeled it off Frank O’Hara’s “Washington Square”:

That arch bestrides me, French 
victory! the golden staff of the savior

with blue lids. The soldiers filing 
at my feet hiss down their drinks

and are savagely decorated, savagely 
turned, their gentle feathers torn to medals

in the air. Gold falls upon them, because 
there is no love, and it is not the sun.

Jane and Mark flutter along the plaza 
underneath the fainting gingko trees

and are cheered by pearly uniform horses, 
still, at parade rest. The guns ejaculate

into clouds abstractedly, and the day 
is in danger of passing without wickedness.

The elements I wanted to imitate:

• Opening lines describes the work of art or scene

• An unusual verb in the first line

• Halfway through, pivot to the subject acting in the scene

• Have an object act in the scene (“The guns ejaculate”: I didn’t do this one)

• Final image telescopes out for resonance.

If you try your own imitation of O’Hara’s poem, send it to me! I’d love to read and publish it.