August 7th, 2009
Paula Goldman
BONNARD’S WIFE’S ASHES
Stooped shoulders, small breasts. The womanly
head bent, Marthe, the model
he made wife in 1925,
She was upset someone might whisper, “She’s one
of those women one doesn’t
marry.” Even here,
her meager shoulders seem to carry
lead. The shadow of her head
blackens the tub.
She invented a life, assumed a name,
de Meligny, a demimondaine,
daughter of a carpenter,
said her family was dead. She took baths
obsessively. Marthe walked
like a bird on tiptoe,
the weightless walk that comes from wings. Raspy
voiced, strict diets, raw meat, saw
no one but her husband.
The doctors couldn’t figure what ailed her.
Though in 384 paintings, she was young, full
fleshed. And when she died at 72,
he locked the door to her room,
finished the last tub painting: four years
rearranging, decomposing,
ending their long estrangement.
No wonder all the baths; she needed
to feel weightless, as
he drowned her in light.
–from Rattle #30, Winter 2008
Goldman captures the personality of the reclusive Marthe, flucturating between physical and mental. She develops mystery, and ends by dissolving her subject in the light of words, just as Bonnard did with paint. A poetic tour de force.
in case this did not register yesterday, I send the comment today:
Goldman captures the personality of the reculusive Marthe, flucturating between physical and mental. She develops mystery and ends by dissolving her subject in the light of words, just as Bonnard did with paint. A poetic tour de force. Kit Smyth Basquin
The poem presents a contrast between a woman’s real character and form and the way her husband, Bonnard, portrayed her as a model. What I get is that Bonnard perhaps couldn’t accept her as she was and even after her death he still sought to create a Marthe as he wanted her to be, firmly closing the door on reality… I also felt that Marthe’s illnesses came from her proximity to her artist husband’s unwillingness to see her and love her as she was. A sad poem but full of interesting ideas.
As the painter paints strokes so does Ms Goldman provide descriptive words that draws a portrait of feelings on her canvas.
Dark and Beautiful.