| Impressions (after works by Cezanne) I. I would rather chew the round plush Of the peach (one has fallen off The plate) than the red violence of the cherries (centered on the white plate, which crushes a white cloth). But Cezanne was right about the jar - Cool green and smooth with yellow mouth, Like a fish, shining and gaping - unable to eat either cherry or peach. II, The point of the painting is space Where there are only smudges of black Paint, filling it - next to the warms And the greens. It is the without That asks for possibility. Or Has it been filled? And now will only stand, Framed, rested, gorged, not empty At all, but a thing complete. III. What to say of those bathers? Sumptuous Flesh, round arms, breasts, Thighs, yellow hues and pink. The trees are lazy and long, stretching Past the round skin bathers and the round White clouds and the blue energetic sky. The women are warm and the ground is warm - The water, invisible behind their naked forms, But it must be as cool as the sky. IV. Monte Sainte-Victoire has not Come or gone - is not Leaving or approaching - the white shards (spaces of what is lost or late) hang Upon its surface and speckle the houses And the trees below, increasing at the bottom, Fading out or fading in. V. The chestnut trees are dancing. Their long thin multitude of arms Bow and bend and hesitate Within the stroke of the brush Caught stretching towards Each other, the sky. Mont Saint-Victoire watches Behind them, behind hills And the soft green grass At their feet. VI. He is watching the card players, That man with the white pipe, Lidded eyes looking down. There are four pipes on the wall, with the mouths Black and open, and one on the table Where the three men are bent, Hunched, silennt, intent on their hands. |