Objects & Apparitions

For Joseph Cornell

Hexadrons of wood and glass,

scarcely bigger than a shoebox,

with room in them for night and all its lights.

Monuments to every moment,

refuse of every moment, used:

cages for infinity.

Marbles, buttons, thimbles, dice.

pins, stamps, and glass beads:

tales of the time.

Memory weaves, unweaves the echoes:

in the four corners of the box

shadowless ladies play hide-and-sick.

Fire buried in the mirror,

water sleeping in the agate:

solos of Jenny Colonne and Jenny Lind.

”One has to commit a painting”, said Degas,

”the way one commits a crime.” But you constructed

boxes where things hurry away from their names.

Slot machine of visions,

condensation flask for conversations,

hotel of crickets and constellations.

Minimal, incoherent fragments:

the opposite of History, creator of ruins,

one of your ruins you have made creations.

Theatre of the spirits:

objects putting the laws

of identity through hoops.

…………………………………………………….

The apparitons are manifest,

their bodies weigh less than light,

lasting as long as this phrase lasts.

Joseph Cornell: inside your boxes

my words became visible for a moment.

(Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III)

Nu numai poeți ca Elizabeth Bishop John Ashbery, Frank O’Hara sau Charles Simic au fost influențați de Joseph Cornell, ci și invers. Cornell a întreținut o lungă corespondență cu Marianne Moore iar una dintre cunoscutele lucrări ale artistului american, Toward the Blue Pensinsula (1953) îi este dedicată lui Emily Dickinson. Mai multe detalii despre influențele reciproce, aici.