Next, I read the poem, "Number 1 by Jackson Pollock (1948)" by Nancy Sullivan to look at the painting from another perspective.
No name but a number.
Trickles and valleys of paint
Devise this maze
Into a game of Monopoly
Without any bank. Into
A linoleum on the floor
In a dream. Into
Murals inside of the mind.
No similes here. Nothing
But paint. Such purity
Taxes the poem that speaks
Still of something in a place
Or at a time.
How to realize his question
Let alone his answer?
Sullivan makes several interesting statements in this poem. At the beginning, she compares Pollock's "Number 1" to "a game of Monopoly/Without any bank." Like this a money-based board game without a bank, "Number 1" seems to lack obvious meaning; however, unlike a bank-less Monopoly, the painting doesn't become useless. Rather, "Number 1" serves as a path into the viewer's own mind, a way for us to explore our thoughts and beliefs by creating our own unique analysis of the painting.