Barba, Susan E.

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

Yalobusha Review Volume 4 Article 35 3-1-1998 To the Artist of the Quattrocento Susan E. Barba Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/yr  Part of the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Barba, Susan E. (1998) "To the Artist of the Quattrocento," Yalobusha Review: Vol. 4 , Article 35. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/yr/vol4/iss1/35 This Poetry is brought to you for free and open access by the English at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Yalobusha Review by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu. Susan E. BarbaTo the Artist of the QuattrocentoIt is night and the black windows  collect white underbellies of bugs, map the ordered geography of dining table, chairs-  insects pressed, swarming over  the flattened surfaces.  I hear a stream murmuring through woods  beyond this strange collage, spilling night  secrets after running hushed by day.Too many distractions under  the sun's bright  eye ­eyes everywhere at once and multiplied.You'd think our other  senses would be sharpened,  seeing as we  do,  half-blinded by the glare  objects attract, bathing in description: light explodes from a  corn  field,  and the eye yields  up  its harvest to the sun.But once the towel is thrown  over that brilliant bird,  veiling a purple grackle, busy  in furrows, tearing  kernels from the cobs, sun dipping low, and absurd- how it disappears to light the other hemisphere,I see that truth  and change are braided grasses  in a Chinese handcuff  tightening to the pull,  or the unbordered puzzle  of light becoming dark becoming  light- that to paint this canvas vibrantly by day  is not to guard against  indefinite  paling  ...grass giving up green beneath snow, but to ensure a darkening, no, deepening with age.381Barba: To the Artist of the QuattrocentoPublished by eGrove, 1998

To the Artist of the Quattrocento

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1376&context=yr

To the Artist of the Quattrocento

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)