This year to celebrate National Poetry Month and to take part in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge, I’ll be posting two poems a day, one written by me and another poem written by one of my favourite poets. The title or first word of the poem, or the author’s name will begin with the corresponding letter in the Blogging Challenge.
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.
****
Most poets are influenced by what they see, and especially by other art forms. I think this poem by Victoria Chang captures the moment Hopper froze in his painting and reminds us that the artist wanted the viewer to ‘turn the woman’s stone into ours.’ The poet interprets the picture is about a search for the self. More about VICTORIA CHANG.
****
My interpretation of the picture is more of a sense of a loss of self, of being trapped in nothingness. The girl has no way out. She can’t make sense of the world around her. She’s depressed, desperate, alone and trapped…
****
Trapped by Luccia Gray (after Edward Hopper’s Hotel Room)
*
Bags dropped,
Hat off,
Dress neatly folded.
Shoulders hunched,
Naked,
Faceless,
Reading
Your wordless letter.
‘To whom it may concern,’
She replied,
‘No way out.’
****
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Rereading Jane Eyre 
I’m with you on this. I saw the painting at an exhibition recently. I love Hopper but there’s always some loneliness and nostalgia to many of his painting.
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I love Hopper, too. And what I also feel most is loneliness, loss and alienation.
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