painting

Mondfische

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Mondfische
(Museum moderner Kunst)

Der weiße Dämmer:
von Regenbogenfängern
mit Blüten bestückt.

*

Bunte Mondfische…?
Wirklicher als Wirklichkeit
hier im Tagtraumteich.

*

Praller Löwenzahn,
tausendfach, singt der Sonne
aus voller Kehle!

Christina Egan © 2014

Very bright painting of mainly blue and red shapes on yellow.

Illustration: Max Ernst:  Fish fight. Oil on canvas, 1917.
© Max Ernst. Digital image distributed under FairUse at  WikiArt.

These poems were inspired by an exhibition of modernist art at the Max Ernst Museum Brühl. Germany. The bizarre and very colourful ‘moonfish’ make an appearance in the painting Mondfische (1917); I show a similar work here.

In a way, visual art is more real than reality. In Quest / Suche, I claim the same for music.

Minerva’s Voyage

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Minerva’s Voyage

I.

Minerva by Botticelli

Her hair is the offspring of river and fire,
her robe has been woven from flowers and wind.
Her foot cannot rest and her flesh cannot tire,
her arm is in flow and her eye will inspire
a voyage for wisdom with one  fleeting glint.

II.

Minerva on the Academy of Athens

She dived like a hawk from her shadowless sphere,
the shield on her arm like the sun in the west –
She looms on the roof with her helmet and spear
to capture the lightning, conduct it down here
and spark our restless and glittering quest.

Christina Egan © 2016

Delicate, pale, portrait of the goddess as a young woman in armour.Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom and knowledge, arts and applied arts; she came to be identified with the Greek goddess Athena, patron of Athens.

The two poems were  inspired by the two artworks mentioned, as well as a temple on the Agora of Athens dedicated to her as patron of artists and artisans.

Illustration: Minerva by Sandro Botticelli (ca. 1482-83), via Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain).

gesternmuster / Zeit-Räume

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A dozen beads of gold, lapis lazuli, cornelian.gesternmuster
(Knossos)

die kolossalen säulen
der stolzen pinien
jener erhabene baldachin
der schutz vor der sonnenflut bietet

die schwarzen weißen blutroten pfeiler
im heiteren palastlabyrinth
jene flecke in einem gesternmuster
das jahrtausendealt ist

Christina Egan © 2016

—

This is a translation of The pattern of a yesterday . At that post, you can find some photos and a link to an artistic impression of the palace 3,500 years ago.

Photograph: Minoan beads from Crete in gold, lapis lazuli, cornelian, ca. 1700-1500 BC. – © The Trustees of the British Museum.

—

Zeit-Räume
(Knossos)

Terrassen, Treppen, rote Säulen
zwischen himmelhohen Bäumen,
Marmorschwellen, rote Wände,
um die Ecken neue Treppen…

Wie im Traume muß man wandern
durch die Höfe, durch die Säle,
durch die Wärme, durch die Kühle,
still von einem Raum zum andern…

Schlanke Bäume, schlanke Menschen
stehn vor heitrem Himmel drinnen
in den buntbemalten Zimmern
heute wie vor tausend Jahren.

Keine Läden vor den Fenstern,
in den Türen keine Flügel,
keine Grenzen zwischen Innen,
Außen, Unten oder Oben,

keine Pforten zwischen Heute,
Gestern oder Vorvorgestern
zwischen einem bunten Zeit-Raum
unter Pinien und dem andern.

Christina Egan © 2016

A Faint Rainbow (Christmas Card)

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A Faint Rainbow
(Christmas Card)

A faint rainbow maybe,
draped across a frozen market,
a filigree tree in the foreground,Old Dutch painting: lively scene of skaters between barren trees, steep gables and a pink manor house
some leisurely loops of skaters,
cloaked figures arranged like mute music –
that’ll do for a Christmas poem.

Good that my second-hand thoughts
and my second-rate verse
are still better than any in town
and almost as good as mulled wine…
And good that my real-life love
turns every single day into Christmas!

Christina Egan © 2012

These lines were inspired by this round painting :
A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle, ca. 1608-09,
by Hendrick Avercamp. — © National Gallery, London

Einer von Millionen

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Einer von Millionen

In einem leeren Spiegel
erschaff’ ich deine Hand,
ich zeichne deine Züge
auf eine weiße Wand,

ich will dein Lächeln siegeln
in einen Linienflug,
als seist du schon genügend,
als seist nur du genug!

Du bist, was ich ersehne,
du bist, was mich erfreut;
doch stehst du für Millionen,
von denen niemand zeugt.

Christina Egan © 2014

—

Here, a painter — or indeed poet — recreates the face of a beloved person in an empty mirror and on a white wall. This corresponds to the German poem Spiegelherz (Mirror Heart), where the speaker wants to ‘swap mirrors’ with someone else.

The end of this  poem has a twist: the one person who means everything to us is actually just like everyone else — we are all unique, extraordinary, beautiful!

Another poem on the uniqueness of each human being at each moment in time is the previous post, Hieroglyphe.

Enamel

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Casket covered in gold and inlaid with blue and green enamel figures.

Enamel

Dreams
made of enamel,
panels in peacock plumage,
in crimson and ivory patches,
in frames of gold.

Dreams
poured into pictures,
of wide-eyed faces,
of white-winged boats,
of bursting baskets.

Dreams
fished out of night,
luminous, solid,
age-old, valid,
with veins of gold.

Christina Egan © 2014

Image: Casket from court of Aquitaine (around 1180). With kind permission of the British Museum.  http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pe_mla/e/enamel_casket.aspx

Göttermahl (Malerei in Fulda)

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Göttermahl
(Malerei im Stadtschloß zu Fulda)

Rundes Brot mit blonder Rinde
spendet uns der Sonne Kraft;
roter Wein voll süßer Hitze
filtert uns der Erde Saft.

Zu dem Abendbrot gesellt sich
stückweis gutgewürzte Wurst;
saftigbunte Früchte endlich
stillen den entfachten Durst.

Welches Mahl man mir auch biete,
nichts kommt dieser Speise gleich,–
und mir scheint gar, man genieße
ebenso im Götterreich!

Christina Egan © 2015

—

You can find very clear photographs of
Emanuel Wohlhaupter’s painted ceiling
(1728-1730) in the City Palace of Fulda
at Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte.