The Concert Singer (Eakins)

#51
For Renee Fleming

Some singers are made of music,
As though there exists a music gene.
For some, even great artists, it's a trick,
The benefit of exquisite training.
You feel the absence of a votive force.
The notes, even the shaping of line,
Are pleasing, like a poem's off-rhyme,
But talent, not music, is their source.
Some singers make of breath a force
That governs the fluidity of time.
The best understand that beauty is fleeting,
That this song, now, is their only chance,
That perfection knows no repeating,
And thrust at our hearts like a lance.

The Sleeping Venus (Delvaux)

#50

Sleeping Venus does not dream of men.
She is made of love she cannot share,
Love being just another form of flesh
Only memory can touch again and again.
Like the sickle moon, vicious and fair,
She is unimaginably distant light and ash.
Her five handmaidens gyrate and moan,
Beseech the night for clothes of their own.
The well-dressed Madame, Venus' tool,
Mistakes a skeleton for a love-struck fool.
Bleak and meager dreams for a goddess,
Yet how peacefully she seems to sleep.
Though her realm is all stone and distress,
We will now invade her sacred keep.

Wheat Field With Crows (Van Gogh)

#49

Have you studied the flight of crows?
They are always agitated, urgent.
Vultures teeter like drunken sots,
Cranes' wings beat insistent blows,
And hawks float lazily fluent --
Crows flap like worried thoughts.
Last week, I saw a hundred rise
From a wheat field recently mown.
They wheeled and as one dropped down,
As though they no longer feared my eyes.
The painter saw them rise and flee
Beyond a path through the wheat,
Into darkening skies, where he couldn't see.
He painted going forward and retreat.

Cafe Terrace at Night (Van Gogh)

#48
For Ruth

Is there just one universe?
There the stars and here the cafe.
Hidden lights illuminate the tables.
The various darknesses immerse
Men and stars in dissolving clay.
Are both god and science fables?
The universes are infinite,
They say, and time does not exist.
But here we are and there the stars.
The air is full of perfume and wit,
And a wine too ancient to resist.
All else is beyond, late and far.
Let's nibble galaxies and swallow suns.
I'll count my hours with you by ones.

Cat and Bird (Klee)

#47

I am a person. Look into my eyes.
I've a heart-shaped nose and whiskers
With which I whisk away the flies.
I had a mom, but never licked her.
This cat's tattoo is a damned bird.
Between naps, the atavistic urges
Burst from my brain like a cuckoo.
I'll chase anything feathered or furred
Until my unsated sleepiness surges
Or there's nothing left to pursue.
My owner's son pets me, feeds me.
That I need him and he needs me
Is a lie I kindly perpetuate,
Especially after what I just ate.

The Rock (Peter Blume)

#46

Is it a living or a dying rock?
The girl with ponytail and frock,
Kneeling without shoe or sock,
Beseeches the insensate block.
Men working beyond the clock,
They don't pause to take stock
Of the closed universe they unlock,
Don't hear the crowing of the cock.
They lift each stone, sleepwalk
Toward those with chalk and caulk,
Like able, obedient livestock.
Work isn't something they mock.
Damnation will come as a shock.

The Bridge Over Chaos (John Martin)

#45

To foresee the event prevents a misfortune.

Constant vigilance is a similar strategy,
As is prayer. Chaos is a man's portion,
Presented to each of us without apology.
Could mankind bridge it for even a minute?
If the world chose just one moment to save,
Say, next Tuesday at noon, a finite
Sixty seconds during which we gave
Our full attention: no rape, no murder,
No manmade or natural disaster,
Could we establish one minute of order?
Or would chaos swirl even faster
And bring even eternity to an end?
Oh, but what a message we'd send!