By Bob Boldt
I Am Transfixed by a Giant Water Lilies Triptych
by Claude Monet 1995 Chicago.
(after James Wright1 and Rainer Maria Rilke2)
Four feet in front of me looms a waterscape.
Claude Monet painted scenes of empty air
where even a Rouen Cathedral might float
like upward dripping meringue
transformed by the enveloping
void that lifts alight all things.
Watch that single brush stroke transform
into the reflection off a floated leaf.
A high-lit lily petal blends with clouds.
Fuck me.
_______________
- See James Wright’s poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” and pay attention to its concluding statement.
-
See Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Archaic Torso of Apollo,” and note its concluding statement.
| Copyright © 2021 by Bob Boldt |
That Rilke poem is one of my very favorites, and thanks for bringing the James Wright poem to my attention. So much like poems by Maik Strosahl and Michael H. Brownstein!
ReplyDeleteThinking that I had included Rilke’s poem in a post some years ago, I looked and found the post [”Humanitarian inclusion,“ January 21, 2012]. Here’s an excerpt:
I didn't see it coming, that I would end up quoting Rilke this morning. But it is most agreeable to be reminded of the many transfixed hours I have spent reading his Duino Elegies, his Sonnets to Orpheus, and many others of his poems....
We cannot know his legendary head
with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso
is still suffused with brilliance from inside,
like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low,
gleams in all its power. Otherwise
the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could
a smile run through the placid hips and thighs
to that dark center where procreation flared.
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced
beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders
and would not glisten like a wild beast's fur:
would not, from all the borders of itself,
burst like a star: for here there is no place
that does not see you. You must change your life.
I was present when Bob read the poem aloud. It worked as a performance piece--now it works as a written on paper piece.
ReplyDeleteThank you also for the notes.
Unlike many modern poets who deliver expected if authentic experiences, there is always something unexpected, and slightly out of reach, even dangerous in his poems. I have been reading Rilke now for over fifty years and I have grown and matured into his work. Sorry I never read German with any proficiency.
ReplyDeleteLove the poem. Agree with your comments. I have found I have learned from every group of creative souls I have associated with. Each group offers something if you are willing to listen. Glad to have you in our current circle of poets. Learning every day! Thanks Bob!
ReplyDelete