{"id":20378,"date":"2013-05-14T06:30:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T18:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=20378"},"modified":"2013-05-13T20:07:50","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T08:07:50","slug":"tuesday-poem-portrait-of-betty-curnow-by-nick-williamson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2013\/05\/14\/tuesday-poem-portrait-of-betty-curnow-by-nick-williamson\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Portrait of Betty Curnow” by Nick Williamson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portrait of Betty Curnow<\/h3>\n

Betty Curnow hangs<\/p>\n

in the gallery<\/p>\n

looking a bit stiff.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been in the picture<\/p>\n

since nineteen fifty four<\/p>\n

when Henderson laid her out<\/p>\n

on canvas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The light fell at such precise<\/p>\n

angles in those days<\/p>\n

but really she hasn\u2019t changed:<\/p>\n

her hair still so severe<\/p>\n

pulled back in a bun<\/p>\n

her arm forever<\/p>\n

lying across that table<\/p>\n

with a half-finished fag<\/p>\n

between her fingers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Climb down, Betty,<\/p>\n

I want to say. Get out<\/p>\n

of that dowdy red frock<\/p>\n

untie your hair. Breathe<\/p>\n

the warm night air.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a9 Nick Williamson<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

This week, as part of the ‘poetry in response to a work of art’ (aka ‘ekphrastic) Tuesday series, I am delighted to welcome fellow Christchurch poet, Nick Williamson. To view the image, click here on “Portrait of Betty Curnow.”<\/a><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Poet’s Note From Nick Williamson:<\/h3>\n

This poem, Portrait of Betty Curnow<\/em>, was written after viewing a painting of the same name by Louise Henderson at the Christchurch Art Gallery. It was of interest to me because Betty Curnow, wife of the poet Allen Curnow, had been a friend of my mother and I had known her when I was a child. Henderson had painted her in 1954, in the cubist style, as a Spanish dancer. I didn’t much like the rendition, the way Henderson had ‘laid her out on canvas’, and I wanted Betty to be able to escape from the painting to be her true self, of which I had a vivid memory.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>About The Poet:<\/h3>\n
Nick Williamson lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. His work has been published in numerous literary journals. His first book of poems, The Whole Forest<\/strong>, was published by Sudden Valley Press in 2001. Broken\u00a0 Light<\/em>, a poem from that book was selected for Best Poems New Zealand<\/strong> in that year. In 2005 his poem, Learning a Language\u2019<\/em>, won the New Zealand Poetry Society\u2019s International Poetry Competition.<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
—<\/div>\n
.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon<\/strong> in the sidebar.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Portrait of Betty Curnow Betty Curnow hangs in the gallery looking a bit stiff. She\u2019s been in the picture since nineteen fifty four when Henderson laid her out on canvas.   The light fell at such precise angles in those days but really she hasn\u2019t changed: her hair still so severe pulled back in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20378"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20387,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20378\/revisions\/20387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}