William Bonfiglio

In cell after cell, he captures again 
the gothic arch-barns in muted hues,
the correction houses near Göttingen.

Eight rows of two panels, a line, and then
another row of three panels, askew: 
in cell after cell, he captures again.

Before, he wove warp and weft like a wren.
These slivers were barely combed when fed through
the correction houses near Göttingen.

Not once does he vary his scale or lens,
but holds his perspective, a hostage view.
In cell after cell he captures again

a world that gives nothing to violent men,
for their welfare and ours remanded to  
the correction houses near Göttingen.

For what could it be if not violence when,
filling one sheet, he commences anew:
in cell after cell, he captures again
the correction houses near Göttingen.

 

---

WILLIAM BONFIGLIO’s poetry has been awarded a Pearl Hogrefe Grant in Creative Writing Recognition Award, the Julia Fonville Smithson Memorial Prize, and has appeared in Gulf Coast, New Letters, PRISM international, and elsewhere. This is from a series of poems responding to visual art created by institutionalized patients and collected by German physician Hans Prinzhorn in the early 20th century. Prinzhorn designated such works “Artistry of the Mentally Ill.”