Pantoum for These Eyes
(by Kristine O'Connell George)


Let yourself slide under their spell –
these eyes have something to say.
Write the stories these eyes tell,
look deeply, don’t look away.

These eyes have something to say.
Come, come meet these eyes.
Look deeply, don’t look away,
find their truth, discover their lies.

Come, come meet these eyes,
sketches of shadow, smudge and line.
Find their truth, discover their lies,
look into eyes with faces left behind.

Sketches of shadow, smudge and line,
write the stories these eyes tell,
look into eyes with faces left behind.
Let yourself slide under their spell.



​(from Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art by Jan Greenberg, p. 43)

Kiki Smith, Untitled (Fluttering Eyes), 1990, print