“The Scream” by Edward Munch.
It was the night-gat
That caused it,
The oil-sea swim
The gripping of the souls
With the music of a dead universe.
They stole “The Scream”
The other day,
Perhaps someone knew all this was arriving,
The twisting blood-skies
The swirls under the bridge;
The bridge to end all bridges
Of the gat that plucks
Out all of our organs
And leaves us as zeros.
It would have been quite beautiful
If it wasn’t so painful.
The strings plucked by a hand
That was no longer human
If it ever was so.
The drunken colours
And the smells that no one
Had ever smelt before
As people plopped
Like seaweed under a boiling dawn sun.
Then the music died,
The stars re-appeared in the sky
The figure on Oslo Bridge stopped screaming
As the birds sang again
The flowers re-appeared
And we walked on our way
Across the bridge of life
As if nothing had ever happened.
The few of us watched
As others vanished from our sight,
Some going up with their angels,
Others going down
Into the centre of the earth.
—
Lord Pineapple.
Comments (51)
No no I don’t think I’m one of those writers, just the way it came out of my head really.
I love the imagery of this piece, really transports you. Paints a picture better than pigment.
~V
excellent response. I love the colors in this.
Thanks, I fixed it. And thank you for the poem link, really.
~V
Quite startling and dramatic…full of images too real as in the night.
OH NO. they better make another movie then.
Oooh, I loved reading this. Well done!
I really love this. It can be applied so many ways; so many layers of metaphor. The imagery in practically every line is also amazing.
I like it. It’s dark, but I feel sorta hopeful at the end. But I want to understand it. And your imagry is amazing… but I won’t leave it at that. I want to understand it.
? Is it some form of Armageddon? Or just a horror fantasy? Or have I missed it completely…?
I did like it though. I like dark. And the hopeful at the end is almost disturbing again… I feel they should be more upset about what they saw/see.
~Laura
Wow! I love it!
As far as my font goes, that’s not the original font I used. I don’t know what has happened to it. I’m having trouble with it for certain! LOL
lord p
i love the work
thank for the images that will stay with me today
t
No clue why it took so long for the comment box to start working?? Slow i-net I guess. Have you come across the national geographic type images of the mummy(ies?) that inspired the painting? Wonderful poem. I was thinking that “goes without saying.” What a silly thought!
Thanks for dropping by my site. I have other images from Sugarloaf from this summer if you are interested.
There in the scream painting something like in Michelalo ” last judgement” in the “capella Sistina” in the Vatican.? Your poem indicates in that direction, I think?
The last lane , the last bridge leading to hope .
Michel
Oh indeed! I hope they find it. I saw that on CNN.
‘part of what we are told to see.’? or part of what we are ‘able’ to see? if it is what we are told, then stop telling me what to see my Lord! Who told me to see a bee in my house today? Or was that a mole hill?
the painting had better not get damaged, I would hang those guys…well put in the poem ‘It would have been quite beautiful…that sums this piece…
I will do it for a weekend…Only!
But one day you will hafta ‘splain….all these metaphors
Wow. That is stunning, that poem, and I want to scream and continue placidly across the bridge, be in your words, too. Oh, and be that mess of veins and arteries, those thick lines of paint that make up the sky. And be the placid sunset we don’t see but know will happen.
Dear Lord,Thanks for the insight…good to hear of your healthy regime….and this writing was essence.
blessings,
beckon
I still can’t believe they stole that painting!!!! Hmm maybe the Three Headed Sarah behind it
Excellent poem, still deciding what’s my favorite lines.
Its funny you should mention that….I have always wanted to be a writer but have been to chicken. I started my xanga to get used to the idea of other people reading what I write. Wondering if that would ease some of my fear.
i like this one, appropriate for the times and hopeful that this treasure is safe
ryc: beer pong is a drinking game we like to play here in the US, it involves throwing a small ball accross a table to the opposite end with the hopes it will plunge itself into a cup full of beer which your opponent must drink if you succeed. its the alcoholics sport..lol
From the old Norse (according to my dictionary) a gat is a hole. I picture the Screamer running from torment of the gat. If so, soul instead of souls? Or did you begat a new kind of gat? Very apt “blood sky” description of the painting. Love “drunken colors” and the imagery of the last story of the last two stanzas.
Glad you liked my Getty poem but I’m a Lady Aplgwest not a sir.
hmmm this poem is like watching a movie or something….taking the reader a little deeper inside the story…excellent…”you do not always have to get my poetry…it is just me emptying my head”…
Dorothea..
Great piece of imagery!
You thought of two more things than I did in my blog. It is so true. With our weird weather this year, especially, it is our #1 topic around here. And ALWAYS the grandkids! You hit the nail on the head.
This is brilliant! Terry, you are a most gifted writer.
Thank you for the kind words of encouragement, about my Plunkett poem. I do understand that those things can happen without one realizing it. You might want to give ‘Freedom Fighter’ another read; I repaired the line that upset those two girls from Canada. Peace.
An insightful poem~truly.
Touche~on the colours. The palette described the tint as violet; however, I have conceded and returned to former shades of blue. Better to be seen as feeble in concession than suffer the shame of bad design.
Be Well~Welcome stranger at my door~~
That was awesome! You know how to make it happen. love to you.
I think your entries get better all the time!!!! Very good poem!
Yes, I did have a drink or two while on vacation. We went to a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco and ate all kinds of greasy food and washed it down with a couple of Margaritas. It was good and so was the vacation or trip. Thank you!!!!
I think your talents grew while I was gone. You must have made the front page with this one today, they seem to be flocking or coming in droves to your door. Maybe you had more time to concentrate but whatever the reason, I loved the poem below pertaining to pills and know the feeling although I avoid pills like I avoid the plague. This poem today, sounds almost sci-fi, very mysterious and scary. I like it and it ends with all quiet sort of like the twi-light zone. You would have made a good Rod Serling.
It has finally hit me who your photo looks like, you need a toga and a wreath of olives on your head, I am sure I have seen a depiction of a Roman emperor looking just like you in that photo.
how can we have come so ‘far’ to have acheived this point, this is a wrenching depiction… wishing you peace
inspired
really 
I see people that tormented in my line of work. When the night falls, then when the sun comes up they revive.
Quite! Damn…you make me use parts of my brain that haven’t functioned since high school.
Wonderful imagery, I REALLY like this, what a journey!!
Thank you for your comment on the Mockingbird, they are a wonder of nature and can sing the song of any bird, but they are mean little hombres.
donna
good good good stuff…..!!! one of my favorite paintings of late, too.
Very cool stuff. Awsome use of visual imagery.
How people can rave about that painting I do not know ,who decides what is art. I like to see things painted as they are, not someones idea of what is a scream, i say good ridddance to it ,anyone who pays astronomical figures for some daft paintings are just snobs, they obviously do not appreciate a good paining when they see it. I think some children can paint better than some of these so called artists. hence I have no interest in painting at all. Clever to make that theft a topic for a poem .I sent 3 to Peer pressure ,they sent them back said not suitable look at what we like. I wON’T BOTHER THOUGH AS I KNOW i WILL NEVER APPEAL TO THE MASSES. cHEERS mARJ{V}sorry finger caught capslock
Profound. I enjoyed this poem and want to see more like it.
To whom it may concern:
THE SARAH’S HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT FOR IF THEY HAD THE PAINTING WOULD BE HANGING ON MY WALL!!!!!
PS Marie St. Denis has ruined my dream of living by the sea…**sob**.
Interesting. So true. We look and go on as if things have never happened. Maybe we cannot do it any other way.
Very interesting. *Applause*
And the Scream when being stolen did stay silent and not scream. ( not ice cream)
this is very strong and captivating….
In my mind I am no older than I was when I was 21! It is just that my body keeps yelling at me–NO WAY!! I do agree with you about passing the baton on to our grandchildren. They are the future. Just pray that they will not louse up the future as we seem to have done with the past and present!
YOU AREN’T THE THREE HEADED GOLIATHS, fooled me but if you say so. Personally, I am glad you aren’t but tell those damn Sarahs to give it up a little as they are hitting me when I am not at my best. Home sick from our trip, same darn thing I had a Christmas and so am not feeling a bit well. If I had a stone, I’d rock that other three heads as hard as I could at this very moment and thinking I wouldn’t miss.
Me
I had to stop by for that one, a poem of, the scream, I saw it on the news and bloody weird piece of work and hard to think of its value as “impossible to figure”.
Now, if your poem had three of those things your birds don’t have worked into it making it a sexual scream, I’d say the value would be even more. I just took a weekend away and didn’t see any in sets of three of them there either but, in threes they are “kind of hard to come by”. All in all, a pricy painting and who knows, if you turn this poem out to the public, it may hit the bigtime and be ripped from books.
As you manage to find your way to my blog when you turn out something new from those birds, you might consider this an invite as I have a new one for you. I had rather be fishing but, too hot to fish so I sat myself down in front of this screen and wrote a poem, no scream but it worked for me.
All in all, that’s a haunting kind of poem you wrote and timely also, do they have Halloween where you are? Stores are filled with the stuff here, kids in costume, they all look like the scream when done up.
Gotta go, late shift tonight.
Lord P — I have so very much catching up to do, and have begun with you because I think you are so very beautiful. You paint word pictures that are so very clear to me and while I don’t always understand fully I am always amazed. I think I like it best when you write as Terry, though I will admit to getting some real pleasure from your other personnas. – Want to comment on your new picture. I know that you have had a few negative comments on it but I think it is something else. I was lucky enough several years ago to purchase some original oriental clay head sculptures, all showing a different human emotion. I wish I could get that picture done the same way–they belong together. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.
I know I still jkaucher’s poet list somewhere. I’ll dig it out and let you know. A lot of the usual favorites were on it: Pablo Neruda, Louise Gluck, Billy Collins, Anne Sexton, Charles Simic. I could go on and on. The list is quite long.
lisa
i like that (ps – GREAT photo!)
Dear Terry,
I’m sure you don’t need my feeble comment days after the post, but I really enjoyed this poem. The news really grabbed me that day.
Michael F. Nyiri, poet,philospher,fool