We stood in the meadow calling out to the horses, 
the large blue horses hock deep in clover, roan 
hills rising behind their backs in early light. No one 
has yet saddled or bridled them, braided their 
manes, looked into their great gray eyes. Rain pools 
in their hoofprints, spawning mosquito larvae 
and tadpoles. Wherever they stand, the meadow 
becomes forest, curved white trees sprout 
from beds of cushion moss and lichen, casting 
spires of lupine, crowns of Queen Anne’s Lace 
into the shade. At last, the horses raise 
their heads, regard us with unearthly eyes. 
They lead us to the river we have heard of, 
but have never seen. 

Die grossen blauen Pferde (The Large Blue Horses)

Publisher’s Notes:

This oil-on-canvas painting (1911) by German Expressionist painter and printmaker Franz Marc (1880–1916) is held at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Image above was downloaded from the public domain via Wikipedia.

For more information about the artist, see Franz Marc: The Complete Works.

(Links retrieved on 24 September 2021.)

Robbi Nester

is the author of four books of poetry, including an ekphrastic chapbook, Balance (White Violet, 2012), and three collections: Narrow Bridge (Main Street Rag, 2019), Other-Wise (Kelsay, 2017), and A Likely Story (Moon Tide, 2014). She has edited three anthologies; the latest is The Plague Papers, available online at Poemeleon Journal. Her poems, reviews, essays, and articles have appeared widely in journals and anthologies, including Aeolian Harp VI, Book of Matches, Cultural Daily, Gargoyle, Live Encounters, Muddy River Review, North of Oxford, Rhino, Tampa Review, Tiferet, Verdad, and Verse-Virtual.

Author’s website: www.robbinester.net

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ After Blossom, ekphrastic poem after an etching by Phil Greenwood in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 3, May 2020)

⚡ Three Poems by Robbi Nester in Verse-Virtual (January 2020)

⚡ Law of Attraction, ekphrastic poem after Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone, in Verse-Virtual (May 2019)

⚡ Night Tunnel, ekphrastic poem after a painting by Robert Rhodes, Philadelphia Night Train, in The Ekphrastic Review (21 April 2016)

⚡ The Locusts, ekphrastic poem after a collage of the same name by Mary Boxley Bullington, in The Ekphrastic Review (13 October 2015)