Rochelle Owens: 'Color Pool in Umbria, in Memoriam Al Held'
1
First a question
then an outline
is it an anatomical form
the monumental painting
is it bearing a signature
and are the letters blurred?
Again the question
the monumental painting
is it an anatomical form
a form of optical effects
of peculiar power
is it bearing a signature
and are the letters blurred?
2
A dead man in a pool
closely and intimately the smell
of chlorine
dead in the swimming pool
of his Umbrian Villa
gorgeous the stone work
painted tiles medieval ruins
the drowned artist’s passion
his rural Eden
monumental the golden mosaic
the giant Cyclops
the gleaming brutal eye
splintering sunlight grapevines
fields of sunflowers olive groves
the drowned artist floating
circling drifting round and round
his rural Eden
a color pool of aquamarine
a dead man’s float
the full sweet lips open
Incredible the beauty
of the Umbrian maid a girl of fifteen
a farmer’s daughter
the muscles of her back
spirally arranged her honey-tone hands
slipping under layers of water
the drowned artist floating beyond
further and further
moving in circles diagonals
ovals rectangles squares triangles
moving beyond the honey-tone hands
further and further
the drowned artist seized
seized by Cyclops the giant
jittery energy the body of work
is work of the body
drifting geometries
3
Incredible the beauty
of the Umbrian maid a girl of fifteen
on her knees
moving in circles
polishing the marble floor
a farmer’s daughter
singing ‘amore mio amore mio’
the marble floor sparkling
smiling at her reflection
the full sweet lips open
In the afternoon
sipping Umbrian wine
tearing off the wing of
a roast pigeon a breast vein
as thick as a finger
4
Everyday Disturbances
in Umbrian farm country
sipping white wine
the faythful cut their tongues out
it is possible that a discarded wallet
holds the beggar spellbound
overzealous crushing the grapes
dangerous and violent the fruit
when the fish gasped Jesus laughed
the full sweet lips open
pulling off the skin of the fish
like a glove hearing a mourning dove
succulent the fillet rolled
rapturous the tongue of the monk
the volume of the fish sea water
spilled on the putrefied heart
NOTE. At age 76, the American artist Al Held (1928-2005) was found dead in his villa swimming pool near Camerata, Italy. It is believed that he died of natural causes.
More of Rochelle Owens’ work, with plentiful commentaries, appears here and here on Poems & Poetics.]
Poems and poetics