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Henri Matisse, The Red Studio (1911) |
There is no one here.
But the objects: they are real. It is not
As if he had stepped out or moved away;
There is no other room and no
Returning. Your foot or finger would pass
Through, as into unreflecting water
Red with clay, or into fire.
Still, the objects: they are real. It is
As if he had stood
Still in the bare center of this floor,
His mind turned in in concentrated fury,
Till he sank
Like a great beast sinking into sands
Slowly, and did not look up.
His own room drank him.
What else could generate this
Terra cotta raging through the floor and walls,
Through chests, chairs, the table and the clock,
Till all environments of living are
Transformed to energy--
Crude, definitive and gay.
And so gave birth to objects that are real.
How slowly they took shape, his children, here, Grew solid and remain:
The crayons; these statues; the clear brandybowl;
The ashtray where a girl sleeps, curling among flowers;
This flask of tall glass, green, where a vine begins
Whose bines circle the other girl brown as a cypress knee.
Then, pictures, emerging on the walls:
Bathers; a landscape; a still life with a vase;
To the left, a golden blonde, lain in magentas with flowers scattering like stars;
Opposite, top right, these terra cotta women, living, in their world of living's colors;
Between, but yearning toward them, the sailor on his red cafe chair, dark blue, self-absorbed.
Response: I like this poem because of its imagination and specific descriptions. Though they do relate directly to the poem, narrating it, there is still room to ponder in the statements. I found myself reading a line and then trying to find the reference in the painting. Most of them i thought were clever descriptions that gave moving life to still objects like "The ashtray where a girl sleeps, curling among flowers; / This flask of tall glass, green, where a vine begins". The poem speaks as if the room is being created and formed in tandem with the description; it keeps me engaged as one by one the elements emerge. I think references like terra cotta and fire to describe the redness of the painting are a bit random and unoriginal though.
