“The artist should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting that which he sees before him. Otherwise, his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead.” ~ Caspar David Friedrich

Hello Dear Poets! I’m Lisa at Tao-Talk, hosting today’s Quadrille Monday. I will do my best to entice your muse to dance along to the prompt. For those new to dVerse Poets Pub or to the quadrille form, it is a 44-word poem written using a word that the host (today, moi!) gives you. Before getting into today’s prompt:

***ANNOUNCEMENT***
Join dVerse at our LIVE session (video and audio) on Saturday, October 24th from 10 to 11 AM New York City time (EST). We always have attendees from around the globe! Read a poem of your own aloud OR come sit in to watch and listen. The more the merrier! A Google Meet link will be provided on the Thursday, October 22nd OLN prompt.

The first thing that may come to your mind for the word screen is what you are staring at right now, be it a phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, or maybe even a watch. Screens are a vehicle for communicating with others across oceans, neighborhoods, or even across rooms. Increasingly when I meet up with my adult sons, they are looking down at their screens instead of interacting with the physical environment of the park, the beach, the restaurant, with me. My granddaughter was born in a world where screens are a part of the landscape. I fear for her and what her level of engagement will be with them.

But screens are other things as well. Something that blocks something else, like the windscreen of an automobile. Window screens keep bugs out. Ornately painted or scrolled, wood or bamboo movable walls that one undresses behind. A filter that prospective employers use to investigate your personal history before offering you a job. Something prospectors use to sift gold from sand. Drug screens to prove you aren’t using illegal substances to your probation officer. A cream you put on your skin to avoid being burned by the sun. A tool used for ruling in or out certain conditions.

“I guess I remembered clearest of all the early mornings, when the lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and of the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen.” ~ E. B. White

The first poem uses nature to hide one thing from another.

First Fall
By Patricia Guzman

Brother, this morning was full of movement, sun flooding
the windows and dew on every green thing. The clouds

slow motion behind the screen of leaves. I wish you
could see the treetops starting to turn into flames.

I wish you could see the dog bathing in the first
morning light. I think I’m the only one who knew

you mostly wanted to be gone. When we were young,
how many times did you save me from some small

choking thing? From fire and water. That time
in the river I almost remember. In the end,

it doesn’t matter how many times we’re nearly
gone. For years, I lived knowing  you were.

Here is another with a similar occlusion:

From a Window
Charlotte Mary Mew

Up here, with June, the sycamore throws
Across the window a whispering screen;
I shall miss the sycamore more I suppose,
Than anything else on this earth that is out in green.
But I mean to go through the door without fear,
Not caring much what happens here
When I’m away: —
How green the screen is across the panes
Or who goes laughing along the lanes
With my old lover all the summer day.

And third, an important shifting in the familiar.

A Forsaken Garden
Bai Juyi

I enter the court
Through the middle gate—
And my sleeve is wet with tears.

The flowers still grow
In the courtyard,
Though two springs have fled
Since last their master came.

The windows, porch, and bamboo screen
Are just as they always were,
But at the entrance to the house
Someone is missing—
You!

Dear Poets, we have come to the place where you may choose to put your proverbial pen to paper and warm it with your poetic spirit’s will in words.

• Pen us a poem of precisely 44 words (not counting the title,) including some form of the word screen.
• Post your Quadrille piece on your blog and link back to this post.
• Place the link to your actual post (not your blog url) on the Mister Linky page.
• Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy.
• Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts! Reciprocation is the life of this challenge.
• Have fun (but only if you want to!)

Prompt closes on Thursday October 22 at 3pm