IMPROVISATION #53
THE JOY OF BRAQUE
(1882-1963)

Knowing only Braque
will transform your day
you wish to take
your orange kayak
from its roped anchors
to Boston's museum
but twice thinking it may
be dangerous to slide
through the Bay State's canals
along the Charles River
into a January twenty third
blizzard of rain
I'm waiting until the storm
is over to be back
on the greensward grass
and hover under sunshine,
this bard is already
feeling warmer
by nursing my reminiscence
from my body of solitude
on days of adolescence
of having an even mood
in my pea jacket and scarf
watching Harvard students
recover from their weekend
stint in a laughter of bacchanals
you decide to go ice fishing
this early morning
by locating a hole and mirror
that I earnestly cling to
on my trek to the Fenway
thinking of anticipating
the enigmatic joy of Braque
with his cool geometric design
as the doors open
to the Fine Art's cultural patrons
here among my favorite rooms
of his drawings and paintings
in Fauvism and Cubism
as an innovator of prints
and progenitor of sculpture
recalling he was once apprenticed
to an interior decorator
of design
I'm viewing his lithographs
with monochromatic color
of the Normandy sea coast
shaping a landscape of Estaque
remembering your etchings
of the "Order of Birds''
from St. John Perse
stretching out on this bench
quoting his French words
and phrases from memory
and remembering Braque's
"Violin and Candlestick."