A sample of what I'm doing on my MA Course

I love working on my Masters Course and I’m glad I decided to opt for part-time because it is allowing me to savour every bit of creative writing that I’m producing. As promised several months ago, I'm going to share a bit of my work with you.

One of the many areas we've been looking at is ekphrasis writing. This is writing creatively from a piece of artwork and it has caught my imagination big time. My first attempt was from a picture called Messiah that is in Leicester’s New Walk Museum German Expressionist Collection. At first glance I mistook it to be representative of Hitler Youth and the Führer’s hoped-for Arian race but then I discovered that Ernst Neuschul painted it in 1919, before the rise of Nazism. He had an exhibition of his paintings closed down by the Nazis because he was Jewish. He also lost his teaching post for the same reason and managed to escape Prague just in time to save his life.

When he painted this picture he was a young artist and a yoga enthusiast, and possibly thought that the world would be a kinder place.

Based on the painting ‘Messiah,’ 

by Ernst Neuschul

Messiah?

The symmetry of sunbeams

across angular mountains

that hypnotic manic stare

finger on fourth chakra

body proud

yoga honed

the conceit

of youthful talent

before Juden war Verboten

before the daub of swastikas

before the last train out of Prague

I'm working on my first piece of assessed work now so I may be quiet for a little while longer. At least I'm absent from here for the very best of reasons. I'm having a great time.