Rainy Day in Camp

Probably the first thing you saw about this painting was the cluster of men drawing comfort by the fire?

Then the rest. The mud. The horses. The tents. Even the rain itself. You can’t see the rain? You can zoom in on a close up of the painting here.

The Met link tells us that Winslow Homer painted Rainy Day in Camp from studies he made during his time as an artist-correspondent in the American Civil War. From The Met site: “…the bedraggled mule at the right ‘tells the whole story’ of the war’s miserable conditions.”

This painting is far from a comfort story, then.

The form is bob and wheel. More of my ekphastic poetry here.

Smoke, fire,
a cup of hot coffee
when you’re cold, or dead tired,
battle weary, homesick –
makes the burden lighter.

But at
night you dream you bite a
loaf filled with needles that
you swallow. You fight a
day at a time – gnawed at.

Rainy Day in Camp – A Poem