|Poem| Upper Arm

 

Upper Arm

-- To Matisse’s painting, "Woman Resting on Her Elbow" 1943

 

Upper, upper arm muscles from shoulder, elbow bones

Swell up bulging, bulging from the ligaments

You don’t know It's okay not to know

Above the woman's blazing forehead

Like a bundle of hemp, like pitch-black clouds, clouds

Like a bundle of hemp, flames arise plump, plump

 

Note on the Muse:

There is a feeling that Matisse's eyes became even brighter at age 73. When he paints, he doesn't leave the subject alone but fiercely overlays his own emotions onto it. I want to do the same.

 

© Ryang Suh, MD 2023.05.25