Storm at Nice, 1919
Henri Matisse, Matisse Museum
Quel Surprise
A calm Mediterranean
blew itself up suddenly.
A barnacled memory
of its former territories
broke loose.
It rose three metres
above itself in torrential fury,
bashed the beach,
pounded the promenade,
heaped fifty cars on top of themselves.
Swallowed four luxury
yachts, spat them back
onto the wrecked shore.
Drowned five inveterate
year-round swimmers.
Carried off six
plage bistros,
all their furniture
and hundreds of cases
of champagne.
It reshaped the landscape
of the bay.
Peter Clarke
Revised 26th July 2023
A Synchronicity
Having got over the shock of learning to put up a page all over again, I considered that I should do it soon to reinforce the learning. So here goes.
In 1919, Henri Matisse painted a storm scene in Nice, where he was living at the time, and this painting is part of the exhibition in the Matisse museum this summer. When I saw it, it put me in mind of a piece I wrote some years ago. So here are both pieces. It is exceptionally arrogant of me to have a poem of mine in the same space as a Matisse. Nevertheless!! They also seem pertinent this year because of the current dramatic weather conditions. It cannot be possible to ignore any longer, but maybe that is just what will happen until it is too late.
As usual enjoy and comment. It is not possible to put comments up on the page but you can click on the email address and send me your feedback. I welcome it all.
And What About . . .
I have neglected this for far too long, and now it is time again. But what to write about, what poem to share? The world is packed with catastrophic possibilities. Such choices: dementia/genocide colluder or extreme narcissism in the White House; a hung parliament in the UK; the reunification of the USSR with a tyrannical megalomaniac at its head; the eradication of a race by a genocidal government in Gaza; the African continent reduced to bankruptcy and regression to male tribalism; in Ireland, even with an appalling electoral turnout the routing of the far right and Sinn Féin may offer some comfort except we face another FF/FG fiasco. Mother Nature rumbles on its rampage, raging against the human species’ abject destruction of the planet’s habitat. What the . . .
Being facetious right now is my only defence against absolute despair. So read, comment, pass it on, and send feedback.
City Walking and Cycling take 680,000
cars per day off the road
Irish Time Heading
More and more folk, cycling and walking, may
keep gases from greenhouses further at bay
This newspaper heading illustrates vividly
thousands of cyclists and walkers assiduously
stopping some cars on their journey
pushing them aside - making drivers quite surly
Mountains of metal - like scrapyards of sculpture
keep bicycle lanes quite safe - at this juncture
The new revolution is well underway
don’t get behind wheels - hear what they say:
Cars and their fumes play a very big part
the smell is quite phew don’t mention cow farts
Wear out your shoe leather walking
greet travellers with smiles while you’re talking
Force councils to make better spaces
to go out and about roaming those places
where vitamin D, and oxygen from trees
fill our lungs and our brains so we see
how to save us and this magical planet
except for some vicious old tyrants goddammit
Peter Clarke, 18th March 2024
