GUSTAVE MOREAU'S SYMBOLISM

Animated from musical symbols
in balanced lyrical glissando
as the nave of noon time bells
chime in the rain's shadows
are heard on the church's steeple
by the sun stained window
Moreau waits by the Paris metro
drawn with a search for color
as his model is not embarrassed
to pose along the bubbling Seine
waves to him faintly
near the lover's green meadow
as Gustave watches people
along the stream of the river
by ferns and dark willows
in the light April rain
his model in the new midst
of her ruminating position
picks a rose in bloom flower
at the crocus edge of shore,
Moreau paints captive images
as he covers his wooden canvas
for the next showing
of his painting "The Apparition"
choosing to be understood
by a Muse of knowledge
yet will live in a scarlet abyss
voices his wonder
of a circled body
that each epiphany has an identity
that has implanted a carnation
hid in deja vu romantic kiss
in his new found modernity
as he seizes at his off hand chance
in a recreation of such madness
which reaches the secret nuances
of his studio mistress
yet teaching us how glorious
is a yellow gentian inspiration
by the hummingbirds and bees
at dawn shapes him in a wellspring
in signs, mirages and myths
as Muses of Clio or Apollo
are breathing along the cracked wind
by grackles on bushes of trees
from a cave's neon butterfly
who rises with geometric wings
as spring shadows are rejoicing
from songbirds on nature's ease
along the exiled woods
an ecstatic blackbird sings
for a half hour
advancing new bones in her nest,
we understand a sibilant tone
to an art which will not rest
on any ancient laurels
here on the high museum walls
watching as Moreau thinks
he is elated from uneven dreams
on his "Oedipus and the Sphinx"
in a balance of purple colors
combing by a new picture inks
his last violet and azalea drawing
of strange angel dream flights
later to be stained
in his "Jupiter and Semele"
from scant vibrations of angels
we picture his working culture
in a chorus line for us to know
tattooed "Salome" in his tableau
in a vast silence of ardent mirrors
whose images of Gustave Moreau
falls on his beloved Galatea
wooed from Polyphemus
in Ovid's "Metamorphoses"
with celebrated presences
along long high corridors
visiting his hallways portfolios
while hearing a trio in a cafe
play viola, cello and violin
from a musical tempo
playing in an exposure's chin
swaying for us con brio
critics quarrel about his future
of pre surreal cultural autonomy
as his geometric shapes
a retrospective colors to imagine
"The Seascape of Brittany"
from the ocean's sea '
and star shells
along small figurines
cups and jars
to open our glowing eyes
motioning us back
to whom we symbolically are
as he drapes his painting
still hearing and laughing
at the piano bar's language
along the Alps
knowing hidden images
are collapsing in an eyelid's glance
of a whitened avalanche
knowing there are islands
searching for lighthouse scenes
where the wellspring leaves us
like a hidden enlightened bird
wakes us in Moreau's paradise
waiting at last
for an April birch branch.