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21 Mar: "Edward Hopper Study: Hotel Room" by Victoria Chang


While the man is away    
telling his wife    
about the red-corseted woman,    
the woman waits    
on the queen-sized bed.    
You'd expect her quiet    
in the fist of a copper    
statue. Half her face,    
a shade of golden meringue,    
the other half, the dark    
of cattails. Her mouth even—    
too straight, as if she doubted    
her made decision, the way    
women do. In her hands,    
a yellow letter creased,    
like her hunched back.    
Her dress limp on a green chair.    
In front, a man's satchel    
and briefcase. On a dresser,    
a hat with a ceylon    
feather. That is all    
the artist left us with,    
knowing we would turn    
the woman's stone into ours,    
a thirst for the self    
in everything—even    
in the sweet chinks    
of mandarin.

Click here to see a copy of the original painting by Edward Hooper called "Hotel Room"

2 comments:

  1. I liked the poem a lot better before I searched the photo. I don't know anything about painting or art, but this painting Is packed full of story. I read a mixed mood in the poem (goldens, greens, and yellows), yet the painting isn't mixed to me. The colors are flat and give an unpleasant mood.

    I love the ending of the poem though. That should be the whole poem along with the painting. "That is all the artist left us with, knowing we would turn the woman's stone into our own, a thirst for self in everthing." Dang I'm thirsty!

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  2. I loved your response to this. I felt so similar when I looked at the painting- my mind had already created a picture before seeing it and it was different than what I got on my own. Yes, the creative freedom the author gives "knowing we would turn the woman's stone into our own, a thirst for self in everything". Such beautiful lines...within the somber feeling we get when reading. Walking in another shoe's....the author describes the situation before uniting our emotion with the emotion of the woman with the letter.

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