Caitlin Dwyer

This poem is tender for me. It’s a poem of trust, and vulnerability, and forgiveness, and anger. It’s a poem of growing apart and of trying to hang on to what remains.

It’s also ekphrastic—it’s based on a work of art, specifically “Grainstacks at Sunset, Snow Effect” by Claude Monet. I was interested in how an artist might return to the same subject matter over and over, watching it reveal itself in new lights, hoping for a transformation. This process of observation, patience and doubt seemed like an interesting metaphor for being a relationship with an addict and the long, slow process of recovery.

The poem is out now in the journal Swamp Pink: Ekphrasis for an Alcoholic

Thanks for reading.

Photo: Claude Monet, Grainstacks At Sunset, Snow Effect, 1890-1891