Adoptee

Adoptee

by Gabrielle Bryden
Painting by artist Aletha Kuschan

Adoptee

Something missing
from the painting,
a lifetime of
unfinished business,
a flower floating
without stem
to ground it,
without detail
to round it,
a flower waiting
for the picture
to emerge.

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Note: Poem inspired by USA artist Aletha Kuschan’s unfinished painting as discussed on her blog here.

16 thoughts on “Adoptee”

  2. This is just fantastic. I think you and Aletha should consider doing a collaboration based on this. My friends and I love stuff like this. A lot of them are artists and they often talk about unfinished projects and the like. If you had a book of this type of thing I would buy it. I am serious. This is such an important part of the crative process that often isn’t talked about. I just love it so much and I want more. You are two talented ladies, that’s for sure!

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    1. Thanks Selma 🙂 I have to put my noggin’ to thinking about these things – I would like to combine some aspect of blogging with my poems – the collaborative aspect, especially the art – I wish I knew what I was doing 😉 haha.

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  4. I’d prefer to think the picture was ‘found’ to fit the poem but, chicken or egg, these lines let me (a person with so much family tree we belong in herbarium, some realiation of that disconnect expressed by so many adoptees!
    “a flower floating
    without stem
    to ground it,”
    Brilliant!

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  8. I love the way you have used Aletha’s painting to craft this clever metaphorical poem, Gabrielle – “a lifetime of unfinished business” – knowing where we come from is a fundamental piece of the jigsaw of self-knowledge, so it must feel this way to many who are adpoted

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