The FAB&PP Poem of the Month for September 1999
two poems on the John Singer Sargent exhibition
1.
whining and whimpering
the sunday crowd finds
its legs adjusts its
headsets
and lines up
with tv at least there's
couches
these people riveted to the
floor in semi-circles
round the pictures
listening
fiddling with the audio
what do they see
where is their gaze
is this all for the eye or is
the ear the pathway to
delight
2.
the mint green hotel room
under-framed
the gorgeous
tussle of luggage in the foreground
[the frame is better suited to
the side chair and the roses]
who were these
people other
than rich and
luckily
captured - face
and fashion
whose ego[s] on display
in the corfu garden
where paint edges on
white and real shadows
draw the pose
in creamy disguise above
the lines
the picture reads
who else can paint light purple
the crocus floating
against the green, the
scarf on lady agnew
black better than
most [and light] the
venetian ladies at
their beads
Robert Lewis badly hung
in a corner
askance of the crowds
[his shadow strides
away glancing
in another city]
his cigarette gaze following
our path
we squeeze through pretty pictures
finally to the somber parade
dutiful
the talent masked ambition
aspiration leaves the art behind
not much purple left
at the end
8/22/98
- This poem is protected by copyright. You may print it for your own use only; other reproduction, commercial use and/or re-distribution of the poem is prohibited.
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