Poem of the Day: "Sea and Rain: Lake Michigan" by Keith Taylor

"Sea and Rain: Lake Michigan" by Keith Taylor is the Songs of Eretz Poem of the Day and the offering from Poets.org's Poem-A-Day for May 19, 2014.  A link to the poem may be found here:  http://poets.org/poetsorg/poem/sea-and-rain-lake-michigan?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Poem-a-Day++May+19+2014&utm_content=Poem-a-Day++May+19+2014+CID_43006e3d2caa7f750e129f29f5a9bf25&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_term=Sea%20and%20Rain%20Lake%20Michigan.

Keith Taylor teaches creative writing at the University of Michigan and is the poetry editor for Michigan Review Quarterly.  He has published numerous poetry collections, and his poetry has appeared in many prestigious literary journals.  Reference to this and additional biographical information may be found here:  http://www.keithtaylorannarbor.com.

Sea and Rain (1895) (pictured) is a painting by James McNeill Whistler (1834 - 1903), an American expatriate in Europe, mainly Paris and London, who is noted for his development of a kind of Post-Impressionist style during the height of the Impressionist era.  Reference to this and additional biographical information may be found here:  http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/whis/hd_whis.htm.

In his ekphrastic poem, Mr. Taylor has captured the essence of Mr. Whistler's painting.  The painting is described as a beautiful abstraction until the human figure in the foreground makes it real, just as light is an abstraction until it hits the retina.