Thursday, February 07, 2008

birth of beauty

times of decrease, recession, turmoil, depression, upheaval, war, loss and degradation, fear and grief, the unpardonable, what can't be retracted, the birth of love borne by beauty on the waves of the sea

Savonarola's body burnt in the Piazza della Signoria, it is 1498, he who convinced you to renounce the sensual pleasure of beauty - The Mystical Nativity painted in 1500 so different to when

you and Leonardo da Vinci, a friend who you studied with in Verrocchio's workshop in the 1470s

those angelic visions

art historians speak of spiritual tautness in your work, of the grace of line and that your figures are holy heiroglyphics

she appeared under your delicate sable brushes in 1492 and disappeared for centuries until the Pre-Raphaelites resurrected her and now she is a definer of feminine beauty in the modern world

with my curls, when I was a young woman, people used to compare me to 'Botticell's Venus'; I, too, have borne her...

rising from the sea

the rush of waves in my ears

listening to you


beauty, fragile, on the lip of, edges, knowing loss's inevitability, a flower blossoms, fragrant perfume and soft vivid colour of petal drifting away, it can't remain, you knew, Sandro, and

yet, she is, borne by the Zephyr on the scallop-shell and wrapped in veils of flowers by the Horae

washes of colour, seaspray of roses,

translucent robes

poetry we weave ourselves with

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:33 AM

    I...wish I was sober enough to intelligently tell you why, but I really do like this.

    I'll read it again tomorrow...

    ReplyDelete
  2. a.decker, lovely :) the best way to read, surely!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous2:32 PM

    I've always thought of poetry as the "high-end" of language use, the exploration and expansion of its expressive power. The poets tell us what words are for.

    This piece, as well as being perhaps the most exquisite verbal caress of a painting I have ever read, also confirms my conviction that you are a real, true poet. Lovely indeed.

    This is what I actually got from it the other night, but couldn't focus enough to write.;-p
    I appreciate your response to that.

    ~Later xo

    ReplyDelete
  4. a.decker, thank you for a delightful and beautiful response! Botticelli tends to do that, inspire the poetry in us. He was a mystery, too - so few records of his life... these Botticelli poems are becoming a suite or perhaps series and so an exploration of Venus and love and creativity and the muse and the nascency of every moment continues...

    xo

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A Pulsing Imagination - Ray Clews' Paintings

A video of some of my late brother Ray's paintings and poems I wrote for them. Direct link: https://youtu.be/V8iZyORoU9E ___