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wallpaper in your paintings is edible
striped raspberry yellow and teale blue
dotted with lime paisley motifs
your young naked muse pale pink
in powdery hue is sprawled limp
and languid on a chaise longue highlighted
by a black and white tiled floor scattered
with richly patterned moroccan kilims
positioning her arms with your
crusty old yet nimble fingers
your lips brush her breast ever so slightly
a half empty lalique etched bottle
complicit with two wine glasses looks on
in a blink of an eye I see
turn quickly and head quietly
to the verandah it's not as if
I'm unaware of your mistresses
they are almost always your models
I must close my eyes bury another
humiliation under my heart divert
myself with petit point and the garden
breathe deeply and keep the tears
locked away behind my eyes
after all you are an artistic genius
recognised in your lifetime
and I am deemed fortunate in being your wife
especially as I am considered to be dull
dull as dishwater'd yellow'd wallpaper
I could comfort myself that I'm not married
to Picasso tormentor par excellence of wives
he is so dazzled by your brilliance he claims
your paintings look as if you have swallowed the sun
perhaps it is all the yellow'd wallpaper
you have devoured over the years
Read Write Poem 112 Prompt...Wallpaper
Picasso actually said that Matisse's paintings
ReplyDeletelooked as if he had swallowed the sun.The above is a portrait of Matisse's wife.
"... a half empty lalique etched bottle
ReplyDeletecomplicit with two wine glasses looks on"
Marvelous word - complicit. I love the thought of the bottle and glasses conspiring.
Hi Rall,
ReplyDeleteI love the last three stanzas particularly. Mrs Matisse looks rather a colourful lady!
Suldog..Quel surprise.A blue pill poppin' Piscean is alway welcome here!
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it Derrick.Thanks.
There's so much about this I like. Overall, I'm struck by the voice of this woman, old-fashioned and blunt, honest while lying to protect herself. Here's a favorite line that illustrates this:
ReplyDelete"as I am considered to be dull
dull as dishwater'd yellow'd wallpaper"
Thanks Pam.There weren't many options for women
ReplyDeleteback then so I suppose it was a question of survival.
Oh I forgot to mention Pam,she left him after 40 years of marriage .
ReplyDeleteIt is odd how much I love the "rest of the story" now, given the poignance and the resignation in the stanza about him touching with his hands, his lips... his models. Thank you for putting your wallpaper up for us to see.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. Beautiful colored imaging. Then emotionally, rendering more and layered meaning onto that. (Now, maybe history books should be written this way!)
ReplyDeleteThanks Neil..maybe we should collaborate and write the history of the world!
ReplyDeleteRall, you do get into the head of a wallpaper wife with humour and interesting how you line 'swallowing the sun' with the yellow'd wallpaper devoured over the years.-Irene
ReplyDeleteThanks Julie
ReplyDeleteThis was terrific, RAll! I like where you took this prompt...great idea!
ReplyDelete(I also felt so sad for her...which means you conveyed the story perfectly!)
Wonderful! I love your use of specifically "yellowed" wallpaper, reminiscent of Charlotte Perkins Gilmore's wallpaper that devoured the sanity of a young mother near the turn of the 20th century. But Mme. Matisse didn't get the luxury of madness. I love the way you make the wallpaper edible.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful view into an unhappy life in the background of a genius.
Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteMarvelous!
ReplyDeleteAs the intricacies of “y”s and “ l”s and double consonants and vowels from the first stanzas leave place to a simpler, but more robust language and another point of view…
I like the way you've woven close consideration of Matisse's piece together with a view of his life from his wife's perspective. The language really conveys voice. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI love your poetry. This one is tantalizing - rich, and intriguing. I see the art better through you. Do you have a chapbook or book of your collected poetry? I would buy it in a second.
ReplyDeleteI think you capture the contradiction that surrounds many artists/poets/writers/musicians/etc. Many times, another becomes a central object of adoration/affection, and the spouse/partner/etc ends up in the background.
ReplyDeleteYour descriptions here are rich, and I love how you took the POV of the spouse. And my favourite line has to be "your paintings look as if you have swallowed the sun". I also caught some nice alliteration in this piece (namely "dull as dishwater'd yellow'd wallpaper"). Great work this week.
-Nicole
P.S. I also like your header image as well.
Thankyou for the vote of confidence Wanda.
ReplyDeleteComing from someone of your literary ilk,
it means a lot.No I've never thought of
publication.I'd have to do mental work out first to handle all the rejection slips.
I like 'wallpapering wife' Irene.Yes, I did
ReplyDeleteget inside her head because I used to be a
wallpaper wife a long time ago.
Thankyou Nicole."Swallow the sun" are Picasso's
ReplyDeletewords not mine.They do describe Matisse perfectly.I'm also a visual artist and Matisse
is my favourite painter.I prefer him to the better known Picasso,who also preferred him.He was quite jealous of Matisse.
Thanks Cynthia.But,you know what they say..
ReplyDeletebetter to be sad sitting on a cushion sewing
a fine seam than to be sad tending the oxen in a field!
Welcome back Paul! January went so quickly.
ReplyDeleteI'm not familiar with the Gilmore story.
Matisse's work is so beautiful it is edible!
Willow..Quel surprise!If you ever get the opportunity listen to Shakespeare's 'Willow Song' sung by Alfred Deller accompanied by Desmond Dupre on the lute...sublime!
ReplyDeleteThankyou for your generous comments
ReplyDeleteAna and Madeleine
so many wonderful likes Rall.....thanks again for sharing your words.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Fauvist painting and a richly, colorfully illuminated poem, all at once! And echoing what others have said, this is an excellent exploration of the emotion caught up in the artistic world... very nice.
ReplyDelete"bury another humiliation under my heart"
ReplyDeletesweet.
Thanks Joseph..pleased you like my poem and Matisse!
ReplyDeleteThanks Barbara and Wayne
ReplyDeleteA poignant mural of the wife. Your words flow and resonate with truthfulness but remain in dreamlike and beautifully thoughtful words. I so enjoyed this.
ReplyDeleteBeautifully done!
ReplyDeletePamela
That's so beautiful and sad; I was swept in and pulled along, and drowned happily at the end.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sue Pam and Joanne(ha internal rhyme)
ReplyDeleteLove the language and sound, those internal rhymes. So flipping rich -- suits the topic extremely well.
ReplyDeleteThe turn at the end is masterful.
Thanks Deb
ReplyDeleteI really like your use of "wallpaper" here... comparing the wife's drab self-image to Matisse's very vibrantly painted colors. I also like how her resentment shines through in those sharp last few lines.
ReplyDeleteThanks Francis
ReplyDelete