Perspective, by Richard Luftig

for him
a painted room
tilts, chairs
in danger

of collapsing
upon themselves.
Or a night
so bright he fears

a bursting
of its stars.
dots connecting
every living thing

he knows to be
impossible,
the constant flux
that never rests.

***

About “Perspective”: “I am very interested in words that have double meanings, double pressures. The word “perspective” is one great example. When I began thinking about the word in its artistic definition, I thought of the artist Van Gogh. This allowed me to think of the poem in three metaphors: the two meanings of the word and how it might apply to Van Gogh, his life and his worth. I thought of these metaphors circling about one another like the double helix of DNA weaving their way throughout the center of the poem. I hope it works for the reader.”

Richard Luftig is a past professor of educational psychology and special education at Miami University in Ohio who now resides in California. He is a recipient of the Cincinnati Post-Corbett Foundation Award for Literature and a semi-finalist for the Emily Dickinson Society Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals in the United States and internationally in Japan, Canada, Australia, Europe, Thailand, Hong Kong and India. One of his poems was nominated for the 2012 Pushcart Poetry Prize.