‘Javelin Ekphrastic​’ and Other Poetry by Alec Ream

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Javelin Ekphrastic

Out of the air and shot from a thrust,
Clout of the spear, forethought where it must,
Wrought from the ancient and taut and released,
Slaughtered and blatant, when caught be the beast.

Note: Ekphrastic is a Greek word meaning a poem to a work of art

Photo Credit: Brandon Alfond

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Julius IV

Half – past Britain, Half – past France,
Old School, Liberal had their dance,
Cut a rug and stomped the floor,
Musket, cannon, bar the door.

Half – colonial, Half – “that’s bull,”
Presby, Jew, Episcopal,
Deist, Catholic, each would vote,
No man strangled at the throat.

Earth with bated breath would hear,
Begin the end of slavery / clear-
– ly perfect? Nay but preferable,
Checkered? Yea, but credible.

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River Ekphrastic

He stood on a continent’s river,
Beholding a swath of the land,
Distilled into silt and delivered,
Southward in mud and in sand,

To ponder the task of the waters,
The task of the waters was great,
Burden du bonne terre verte:
A basket of land was her freight.

Photo credit: Hovick and Field

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Synergy

Without boredom, without dull
Not insipid was the pull
Dialectic her and he
Bon eclectic, bon espirit

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Untitled Ekphrastic

Weary Earth Declining Sun
Creak of wheel at brink of night,
Hiss of steam as day be dead,
Industry lift up thy head.

Work be wrought of sweat and grin;
Shirking not beget again.

Photo credit: Hayden Hall

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Alec Ream is a writer living in Virginia. His poetic work and creative fiction have been widely published. A member of the Demosthenian Literary Society at UGA, he wrote on Lookout Mountain, and continued to write, lecture and work for Delta Kappa Epsilon HQ. He was first published reading to the pledge class of Michigan DKE, in Ann Arbor in 2008. Recently, his poem Green Fire was read at the Washington Literary Society & Debating Union at UVA.