Friday, March 4, 2011

The Art of Painting


















The Art of Painting (Johannes Vermeer) Sonnet #1


He draws aside the brocaded curtain

As if to reveal an intimacy

Tantamount to an indiscretion,

Though it is just to allow us to see

A portrait painter paused at his easel,

And his model, a young woman demure

Beyond conceiving, who, a tease, will

Smile, eyes closed, supremely sure

The man has never seen a lovelier.

Perhaps the painter never has either,

And though he has a warm affection

For searing late afternoon sunlight,

For stillness rendered into perfection,

It is all a blind for sexual delight.