
JUST LIKE EDWARD HOPPER
December 5, 2006
This poem was originally written December 5, 2006 after a trip to the Art Institute in Chicago, where I viewed some works of the American artist Edward Hopper... I was inspired by his most famous painting Nighthawks, but also by Chop Suey and On a Train. What inspires me about Hopper is his ability to paint a mood and for us to create conversations or relationships that may exist amongst his subjects. Here I am comparing my difficulty in truly getting past the trivial and into deep conversation versus Hopper's ability to communicate so deeply without words.
Call me by my name, I love to hear the sound
of stepping off the curb and on to sacred ground
It feels like that to be tonight enlightened by your grace
to peek into your window, to look into your face
Tonight, we sit and talk as we grow more and more acquainting
like two women talking in an Edward Hopper painting
As something from a scene from Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Two Nighthawks masquerading our intimate extremes
Each hiding different secrets, skeletons locked away
left for new confessions on a different, future day
Call out to me, I love to hear my name
I find new ways to be with you, although it's just a game
It seems like I invent new ways to prove myself aloof
Waste away opportunity, a mindless, soulless spoof
Tonight we sit and talk as we grow more and more acquainting
Like strangers on a Paris street in some Edward Hopper painting
As women sitting plain in coach on an onward rushing train
We stare and try to solve the challenge of each other's pain
Each keeping things that strain the heart from each other's reach
Each thinking there is more to learn than more to teach
I wish I could open up without saying any words
As Edward Hopper does in so many of his works
A couple sits in silence saying more than I've ever said
I cannot communicate half as well as Edward Hopper dead