Monet never knew
he was painting his "Lilies" for
a lady from the Chicago Art Institute
who went to France and filmed
today's lilies
by the "Bridge at Giverny"
a leaf afloat among them
the film of which now flickers
at the entrance to his framed visions
with a Debussy piano soundtrack
flooding with a new fluorescence (fleur-essence?)
the rooms and rooms
of waterlilies
Monet caught a Cloud in a Pond
in 1903
and got a first glimpse
of its lilies and for twenty years returned
again and again to paint them
which now gives us the impression
that he floated thru life on them
and their reflections
which he also didn�t know
we would also have occasion
to reflect upon
Anymore than he could know
that John Cage would be playing a
"Cello with Melody-driven Electronics"
tonight at the University of Chicago
And making those Lilies shudder and shed
black light
—Lawrence Ferlinghetti, 1950s
The thing I like most about this poem is the underlying conflict between expressionism/impressionism, but how that’s totally unnecessary to aesthetically enjoying the poem. Irony?
(aside: Poetry sucks in html. This is the best fix I could find. My apologies.)