3.07.2012

Paris : A Recollection.




In a quiet moment at the Musée D'Orsay, I sit on a bench and watch a painter make his peace with a replica of Latour's La Nuit. In strokes he layers pastels over the soft concave and convex curves of her body, wraps her in a cloud of lavender and gray. 

Patrons tread quietly on marble tiles, stand arrested by the colors of Cézanne, Degas, Delacroix, Klimt. They peer out the second story windows at a brilliant sky. By my eyes, the clouds are different here than anywhere else in the world, brilliant white cotton and silk spun mountainous over sacred monuments. And the sun shines bright across twinned balconies, long bedroom windows, blue rooftop after blue rooftop. 

By no surprise I am in love here, and with here. I am unsure if it is the expected or unexpected that raptures me, the idea or the tangibility. As with art and life, romance and relationships, idealism and realism beg conversation.

So it is with memory - was I really there? I'm glad I wrote it down.



[Best friend returns from Paris tomorrow. Oh how I wish I could go back.]

3 comments:

A. Smith said...

Love your words. You are so poetic!  Also, I don't know about you-- but when I traveled to Paris I felt it really lived up to the hype. It was romantic and beautiful and full of well-dressed Parisians ...sigh... we should pack our bags and go there tomorrow =)

Jon Fulk said...

In spite of the fact that I've been to Paris a few different times, I never made it to the Musée d'Orsay.  Thanks for taking me there with your writing.

Jim Woods said...

 I don't think I've ever seen that beautiful painting before. Wow!! 

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