1 Feb 2022

Sharon
Phillips

New
Moon

Feb 16th

Jan 17th

Inspiration

After Käthe Kollwitz's Inspiration (1904/05)

and Sharpening the Scythe (1908)

perhaps this one’s

her muse

crouched at her back

his black wings outspread

her arms crushed

by his legs he grasps

her shoulder he grips

the scythe and growls

take it now take it

take your blade

and kill

or this charmer snuggling close

while she gazes into the distance,

her broad hands on her knees

and her shoulders set foursquare:

after her day at work in the fields

what wouldn’t she give to nod off

were it not for his thrilling whisper

yes oh yes this is the hour

alone in her hut

intent on the scour

of whetstone on iron

blade propped

against her face

her eyes half-shut

as she works

for the sake of

hungry children

raped women

men harnessed

like beasts

she tests her scythe

for keenness

Behind the poem...

This poem was initially inspired by Sharpening the Scythe, an image from Käthe Kollwitz’s Peasants’ War cycle. But as I got deeper into Kollwitz’s work, I realised this image was in turn the culmination of an earlier, rejected folio called Inspiration. Together, this tremendous sequence of images show Kollwitz’s increasing assertion of women’s power and agency: she first proposes a male muse, then rejects that notion for self-determination, in a way that reflects not only on the women depicted, but also on Kollwitz’s own trajectory as a woman, and as an artist.