Definitive

Confidence is

the fear of failure

overcome

by intention and action.

Deja vu-

a memory of the future.

Something indistinct.

Yet distinct in an indescribable way.

Presence is a given

taken for granted

even when absent.

Forever and infinity

need time.

Now

never lasts long enough

to say what

It

Is.

Artwork credit: 'A woman pleating her hair', possibly La Cigale. Signed lower right: CAMILLE METRA, in Public domain c. 1890 via Wikimedia Commons.

Pastel 65 x 54 cm. (25 ½ x 21 ¼ in.)

Exhibited: Possibly the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1895, no. 1528.

Camille Métra exhibited regularly at the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1891 to 1903, using her maiden name before 1895 and exhibiting as Hubbard-Métra after her second marriage. Métra was also a member of the Union of Women Painters and exhibited frequently at their annual exhibition between 1891 and 1911.

Although we know little of her biography, Métra’s extant work reveals a talented artist, working in a late Academic and Art Nouveau style. Active primarily as a pastellist, though also confident with oil painting, Métra seems to have focussed on arcadian subjects, often derived from literary and mythological sources. She was also active as a portraitist, particularly of children. After the death of her first husband in 1892, Métra married the French politician Gustave-Adolphe Hubbard, with the couple divorcing in 1904.

Signed with her maiden name, the present work likely predates Métra’s marriage in 1895. The pastel may be La Cigale, exhibited at the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1894. Drawn from La Fontaine’s fable The Grasshopper and the Ant, the title alludes to the fate of one who (like a grasshopper) ‘sings all summer’ instead of preparing (like an ant) for the hardships of winter. By Métra’s time, La Cigale had become a metaphor for the beautiful bohème who lives with no thought for the future. A popular artistic subject in the late 19th century, La Cigale was typically depicted as a young brunette set against a verdant backdrop of foliage, usually with a musical instrument though not always so. Whatever the case, with her flowing tresses and emerging from a dense forest of vegetation, Métra’s young woman is an archetypal Art Nouveau subject.

Innocent

I should be content 
knowing nobody
could love him
like I do.

True enough
to have witnessed
the changing self
d r a w  o u t l i n e s
of desires
longer than
arms reach.

The center feels like a heart
compressed,
echoes collapse and
the chest pushes a thought
into wearied exile

only one 
caress could suspend
the pursuit 
to trace folds of grey matters
inside out. 

Make dreams
a solace somewhere
whispered images may be
seen tangible in a way, 
a drift made by you
moving through this life
dropping leaves

in a scent,
how I know myself. 



Painting by George Lawrence Bullied (1858-1933), 'The Love Letter' c. 1911 in Public Domain.

Germination

So they go on, doing the deeds,
rolling the ball they tossed
as if it were not obvious
they were following
where their eyes aimed.

Like an animal behind a tree,
they think I don't see,
and I am partly to blame
for this charade,
a willing blindness,
suspension of attention,
inescapably-

there is a stench,
as overturned dirt
insists on being known
thereby making its presence
the heaviest air in the room.

And like the elephant Ganesha,
she leans in, the earth tilts,
her trunk drops
an apple at my feet.

It is my choice
to open mouth
desirous of a tree,
or keep the seeds inside...





Photo credit by safaritravelplus [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons.

(in)Tuit

The silent one knowing,
failing how to say
without both saying
and knowing wrong.

Is indignified by others,
esteemed by self-sufficiency
and exhibits a corresponding
lack of regard.

Not you.

It was another time,
and always the same
we made more than may be
handled, physically, intrinsically-

Innate to few, too few,
find efficiency fair enough
or judicious for All
intents and purposes.

Say nothing (more).




Photo (held) By Smithsonian Institution [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons. Doris Caesar, American Sculptor. Description from Wiki "Doris Caesar sculpted expressionist figures of women, religious figures and flowers. She used distortion and an emotional, loose style in which the unsmoothed thumb marks in the clay remained as a textural element in the finished bronze pieces. Over time, her style developed to be more smooth-surfaced. She was also a prolific writer publishing "Phantom Thoughts" in 1933 and "Certain Paths" in 1935."

The cure

Like most people,

I know more than most people.

Taboo topics, like religion and politics

have no place out of doors,

less is more-saying wise.

Opinions, as I have said before, are canned 

goods, homemade tastes better.

Did you notice the leaders need more followers?

I have no doubt their pantries are stocked. 

Perhaps taste requires focus.

Pickling causes swelling. 

All people only recognize five objects at a time, 

so how would leaders know a lover from a hater

up front?

Or a pickle from a cucumber...

Precisely my point. 

There is no crime in popularity contests,

pretty packaging by poll, you follow?

Me neither. I will walk away

and say nothing about knowing 

anything about anyone

anymore.

Unless I thought my opinion may be expired

until I checked the label noticing a 

dangerous dent

where it says 

Homemade Poetry

concentrate.

Photo By Bruce Bisping, 1953-, Photographer (NARA record: 1888360) (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Half the battle

I know
we know more
than we know we know

I know
knowledge is power
when acknowledging our weaknesses

I know
to not know
is knowing more than nothing

Nobody knows
the potential possible
when getting to know someone

Nobody knows
all there is
to know about anything

Ever

Nobody knows
what you know
I know
you
never
know

I don't know
anybody
like
I know
you.



Image of painting by By John Henry Henshall, Thoughts, 1883[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.