Featured image
‘Cauld Blaws the Wind Frae East to West’ (1888)
Painting by Joseph Farquharson (1846 – 1935)
An ekphrastic cadralor
In the form of 5 kimos
I.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians displaced within their country, having fled Putin's war.
II.
Many waiting for up to sixty hours; freezing weather at border; queues up to ten miles long.
III.
Women and children refugees huddle; sort through donation boxes; wait at holding centers.
IV.
Ukraine’s border guards stop male citizens ages eighteen to sixty from leaving the country.
V.
U.N. commissioner for refugees estimates potentially four million coming.
d’Verse Poetics: March Wind Ekphrastic
At d’Verse, poets were offered four paintings to select from to write ekphrastic poems:
Let’s write poetry together!
When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.
–Ben Harper (b. 1969)
Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
No words…
🤎 Terveen 🤎
Simply put and stirring. Tonight, my radio station played a fragment of a newscast from when the Berlin Wall came down. It’s bittersweet in juxtaposition with what is going on in Ukraine.
😔 Sascha 😔
Forewarned –
War became inevitable –
Also a reminder how the peasant from the Ukraine, Joseph Stalin and the Russian Jew, Leon Trotsky came to blows in January 1924.
💔 Abi 💔
Very sad David
The unbundling of nations always have casualties
We’ve seen this with the former Yugoslavia
How rape became the weapon of war
We saw shell shocked children younger than nine years old
Turn grey overnight.
Seperating a piece of land
Taking away Capetown Texas or Lagos
Will come with bloodshed.
Utterly devastating – I can’t stop thinking about it… and about my wife’s family members in Russia who are now living under draconian sanctions…
Yes I’m extremely sad to hear about your family. This connection to people tugs the heart this way and that way. The ottoman empire ruled the balkans. He who controls Mastercard wins the war.
I doubt there is much love for Ukraine as such.
We are entrenched in geopolitical struggles.
One of the empires will capture your heart.
It’s overwhelming. Words are failing me. Thank goodness your eloquence still persists, David. It’s a dark night indeed…
😞 Mike 😞
Your words painting pictures again!
💙💞 Robert 💞💙 ~ like taking a photo!
heart wrenching and accurate! 💖💖💖🙏
🤎💓 Cindy 💓🤎
🥰🌈🌈
The events in Ukraine are almost surreal…this painting moved me to write of refugees as well. Thanks for sharing, David.
💔 Lynn 💔
It is just a crazy and very sad situation, David. Well captured!
❤ Ingrid ❤
War has begun…and now we are perhaps witnesses to a battle that may yet evolve into one of the fiercest conflicts in history 😦 😦
Yes, the chapter has only begun
That sounds kinda dark 💀
My thoughts are with your verses and pics!
😘🤗 Kaushal 🤗😘
Tragic, and it’s only just beginning.
😔 Jane 😔