Rochelle Owens: De Chirico's Vendetta (2020)
![Giorgio de Chirico — Self portrait — 1922 Giorgio de Chirico — Self portrait — 1922](https://jacket2.org/sites/jacket2.org/files/imagecache/wide_main_column/owens_3_0.jpg)
[Since the start of Poems and Poetics in 2008, I have attempted to chronicle the perennially evolving poetry of Rochelle Owens, who remains for many of us one of the most fierce and dynamic practitioners of our art as we move across the millennium boundary to embrace her. (j.r.)]
. . . . .
In this story detached
from the course of events
staged and scripted
out of a lost narrative
figures in these scenes appear
d i s a p p e a r
*
My room is a divine pilgrimage
s c u o l a m e t a f i s i c a
*
De Chirico stands
in front of a blackened wall
morning to evening
evening to morning
painting a town bisected
by a railroad
drawing a tailor’s dummy
painting vertical/horizontal
lines shadows of a blackened wall
brighter darker
squares rectangles circles
a ferocious s c a t t e r i n g
blood in blood out
spirals of colors pulsate
moisture and nutrients flow
in your mammalian brain
you listen to recordings
of his voice watch his gestures
facial expressions
an Italian from Genoa or Egypt
whistling humming —
lontano lontano his body sways
side to side
the universe contracts
e x p a n d s
blinking in and out
vibrating subatomic particles
fill the dome of your skull
disease famine torture war
the universe contracts
e x p a n d s
a glass of ice water sparkles
his tongue protrudes
from your mouth and you taste
the rain
De Chirico shifts his gaze
*
When drawing ovals
his father’s face appears
d i s a p p e a r s
audible inaudible
repetitions of words — you must find
the demon in everything
black and hot my coffee
white and cold my women
painting trains empty walkways
a toga clad manikin
seized with jittery energy
he makes a fist phallus
work is a binding obligation
painting morning
to evening evening
to morning painting a deserted
townscape painting
an armless female statue
desire suspended
between observer and subject
humming — lontano lontano
audible inaudible
moving your lips as you read —
contempt scorn ridicule
writing in his journal
I Giorgio De Chirico amputated
at the knees —
the Art dealers
s t r a n g l e h o l d
painting a black silhouette
a train emerges from a brick wall
he makes a fig sign
De Chirico shifts his gaze
*
In Las Vegas displayed
in a shop window a series
of self portraits
from a marble bust
back dated f o r g e r i e s
of early works titled
with the name De Chirico
also multiple paintings
from his Metaphysical Period
back dated f o r g e r i e s
titled with the name De Chirico
also a hundred drawings
of Towers Of Loss back dated
f o r g e r i e s
titled with the name De Chirico
fake De Chirico paintings
made by De Chirico work is
a binding obligation
*
When at Piazza Santa Croce
rays of light penetrated the palms
of your hands when
blood congealed
pushed to the surface
S t i g m a t a
R e v e l a t i o n
De Chirico shifts his gaze
*
Internal disorders
are neither logical nor illogical
neither are biscuits
in the middle of a rectangle
moisture and nutrients
flow in your mammalian brain
drawing crayfish
oysters eggs eyeballs
clusters of bananas
a bull’s testicles a scrotal vein
as thick as a finger
and there came
a violent spasm in his gut — painting baguettes
lying in a coffin box
the dome of a skull
M i t o T r a g e d i a
and he paints
ornamental letters spelling
i m m o r a l f o o d
seized with jittery energy
you must find the demon
in everything laughing drinking
vino he draws
a black iron skillet
glowing particles
of charred fish skin humming —
lontano lontano
De Chirico shifts his gaze
*
At the edge of
a deserted townscape
his father’s house
longing thrown onto
the canvas morning to evening
evening to morning
an outline shapes itself
e n i g m a t i c
scenes come into being
black and hot my
coffee white and cold
my women
how to view still life
the spasms of death
to view how life still his body
sways side to side
you must find the demon
in everything you must find the demon
In broken geometric forms
De Chirico shifts his gaze
[NB: Giorgio De Chirico, a pioneer of Surrealism, was greatly admired for his early works; his later paintings from 1945 to 1962 drew the disdain of fickle dealers who influenced collectors. Thus, De Chirico decided to back date the paintings.]
Poems and poetics