Cezanne Speaks to Artists Who Wait to be Inspired
“I struggle with the meaning of life.
I paint the ambiguous appearance of reality,
and the absurdity of death.
Red apples roll in the crease of my canvas
tempting limits of line and space.
Though I have not tried everything yet,
where would they be without me?
The essence of nothing is complete because
nothing can be completed.
Yet some survive the test,
feel rescued from
the enigma of my reach.
Yet my loneliness persists,
blankets the earth,
smothers life
beneath a barren tree.
Imitators exhaust themselves
plodding ahead
in worn boots.
Yet their struggles persist.
Their waiting, never over.”
Cool Blue Morning
Seen from space
gases in the atmosphere
give earth
blue light.
Like light, I scatter,
more violet in mood,
despite wave lengths.
I stretch, sinews taut
on wire
back and forth between
tall towers,
like Petit’s Le Coup,
an ambient gesture,
one quarter mile in the air
between air and reality.
There is no escape,
I soar.
Maria Keane served as adjunct Professor of Fine Arts at Wilmington University, New Castle Delaware from 1984-2009. She received her M.A. from the University of Delaware (Phi Kappa Phi.) Maria, a visual artist and a published poet, is an Arts and Letters member of the National League of American Pen Women, and an artist member of the Howard Pyle Studio of Wilmington and the National Association of Women Artists. The Philadelphia Writers’ Conference, and the National League of American Pen Women have awarded her distinctions for poetry. Maria has contributed ekphrastic poems to the Biggs Museum of American Art from 2005-2011. She was awarded a Professional Fellowship for Works on Paper jointly from the NEA and the Delaware Division of the Arts in 1997. )