heat late in the spring
-is it strange for thunderheads
to build so high?
Powerful motors steam through the Schwarzwald
sending coal black clouds to marry the mountains' haze.
The poet's skull is full of Aegean light.
From Munich across the Rhine
and into Alsace-Lorraine
iron rails rumble.
Beechwood and Chestnut tree streak by,
vineyards roll on like wide green seas.
In a moment of somnolence
he dreams he is in Athens;
the blue skies are so wide,
he is hypnotized.
Opening an eye
an oxcart is mired in the mud of a riverside.
...is that a bullfrog in the gullet of that stork wading there?
Paris -sooty and sad-
slowly draws up to the voyager.
on uncertain winds
it rides the darkening skies
-scent of coming rain
Giorgio De Chirico, satchel in hand,
steps into the gare Montparnasse;
he weighs its light,
sounds its echos,
fathoms its depths.
Like an alchemist's apprentice
he prepares his last great experiment
in order to enter the guild.
The City of Metaphysics awaits him.
Apollinaire
and his foppish clique
doze
like a cloister
of opiated angora cats
in stale silk rags.
Derain's syrupy hummingbird pastries,
two weeks old,
are artfully piled
upon a silver dish.
Grey and nicotine
icons
of Braque and Picasso
will be a pilgrim's resting place
for a moment of reverent reflection.
horizons darken
-thunder groans from the frontier
like distant cannons
Author notes
painting:Giorgio De Chirico
"Portrait prémonitoire de Guillaume Apollinaire", 1914.
Huile sur toile, 65 x 81 cm
Musée national d'art moderne
Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris
In a list
A contest entry
- Poems of a City by NurseChilly.
1800 points, ended April 11, 2008, 16 entries
Gold trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
1 - 11 of 11
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Lovely start and ending with haiku. Your graceful use of subtle poetic technique bring the reader as a step into and travel with the narrator. This is compelling , distinct and bears worth re-reading to gather the layers and absorb them.
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Congrats on the gold, well deserved. It's a great choice of topic, and the poem does it justice. The choice of haiku to open and close seemed a nice way of mixing in classical elements to incorporate De Chirico's style (though hexameters would have seemed more truly "classical"). Strangely, they're the most enigmatic sections of the poem as well.
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This is fantastic- it catches the ambiance of place , time and culture- at least I imagine it does, I wasn;t there obviously, but I often imagine such things and your writing is the kind of good writing that feeds the mind of the reader. Much deserved gold here.
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Congratulations!!!
Very well deserved. -
hummingbird pastries!! damn damn... this is most gorgeous Gary...
thank you for stepping out of your normal comfort zone and producing this for my contest
tis grand indeed
lovely
G.x
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my god. you owned me haha
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Thank you sweety-pie!
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Whispers softly, Well Done!
First there are the eyes. A scene, a picture, a painting of exquisite detail and texture attracts, then holds your attention so that your feelings, so rarely exercised, are allowed reign. Wonderful piece of art.
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This is a feast - of symbolism, surrealism and dare I say Da Da - and how you brought it into a haiku is amazing. Kudos, poet, I am in awe. You also, by the way, took me on a trip through so many cities that my passport is a blurr of stamped images, Braque would love it.
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Enjoyed this poem of yours about the city of poetry - filled with such vibrant images, such details you have written into these lines of your poem. Think this is what the hostess had in mind when she asked for poems of the city. Great flow and wonderful words, alliteration, assonance and great attention to little bits of this and that.
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Thanks for your kind comments, "granyeri"!
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