For many years, this bright yet foreboding carnival scene hung in my childhood bedroom. My mother applied the paint with a palette knife, slashing black lines across the canvas. Drifting to sleep, I imagined the eerie echo of a calliope. One of the poems in my collection Secret Formulas & Techniques of the Masters grew from dreams and nightmares the painting inspired.
The book is now available from Brick Road Poetry Press and other booksellers. Here’s info: Secret Formulas & Techniques of the Masters.
Image @ Louise Craven Hourrigan