Paul Russotto in Torpignattara Photograph - Limited Edition of 1

POEM FOR PAUL RUSSOTTO A series of pictures one upon another Charles Baudelaire Chill early morning Paris spring 2013 looking out from a window onto the small courtyard Hôtel du Dragon three doors up from Cahiers d'Art Christian Xervos pace editor of books both popular and beautiful chambre - petit déjeuner - chambre - petit déjeuner The clouds are moving eastward from the Atlantic to the indifference of a clear fleur de lis blue sky halfway to Switzerland where they stop to rest jumbo cottonballs among the Alps then to follow after Hannibal and Bonaparte down onto the plains of Lombardy where foreign clouds wed native fog Across from the window latticework crosshatching ivy green and crinolated to let the gaze go beyond adjacent wrought-iron balcony balustrades arabesque kittycorner to the coiled hose and maritime life-buoy emblem of Paris of painters and of poets fluctuat nec mergitur back to the ivy overlaying latticework in simultaneous visual cognition an inevitable geranium on a window ledge "So here we have these various planes..." I can hear Russotto explaining to the un- initiated the arcana of painting while his hands demonstrate cubistic signals at face-level SCRIPTIONS JARGONS GRIBOUILLIS KRITZELTRIEB An elevator shaft meets up with a ventilator duct What poets learn from painters is an open question Gautier Baudelaire Laforgue Verlaine Apollinaire "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" a small canvas painted by Walt Whitman Malarmé chez Manet and the blue-grey skein of smoke still meanders from his cigarillo (on the Metro the "alarme" is missing an M) Ezra Pound at El Prado in Madrid memorizing eyes Ardengo Soffici Futurista alias Stefan Cloud Robert Creeley nightwatch with Franz Kline at Black Mountain College The clouds are moving east over the broken geometry of the metropolis the clouds from Spleen of Paris Then look down: on the skylight's irregular reflection the clouds are moving in the opposite direction Over the rectangular patch of glass reminiscent of a painting by Russotto (vide Study for Restless 1999 gouache on paper) the clouds are moving below the smudged charcoal the ivy and the latticework the grid of windows and the elevator shaft The vertical oval porthole of the third floor latrine the arabesques of balcony and the coiled garden hose the halfhearted pendulum of the cuckoo clock and the corridor of mirrors and lithographs cubistic handsignals at face-level What poets learn from painters Lawnchairs facing hilltop Todi Matisse's garden above Nizza Fanelli's bar a cave of mirrors What painters know and what poets if they're lucky come to learn ut pictura poesis Jacques the painter at Lascaux chatting with magicians and musicians "language..." Willem De Kooning saying "in order to sit around all day talking about art" and there are worse ways for mankind to spend their hours and their years "La rue Saint Jacques..." Pierre Soulages is saying "...was dug up full of ivory tusks the mastodons who lived on Mont Saint Geneviève the rue Saint Jacques first trampled down by thirsty mastodons then by painters and their poet friends coming down to drink in the evening at the sacred helicoptered waters of the river Seine ALAN JONES Paris April 2013

Photography:Digital on Other

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:1

Size:17.7 W x 11.8 H x 0.4 D in

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