‘Olympia’s playrooms’, 2004 – Poem by Robert Nelson

Olympia‘s playrooms

There are rooms in my house where the wall and the floor
open up to a scene like a magical door,
where I walk in imaginary spaces and fictions
and play in a realm of enchanted depictions.

The first of these rooms is a library, filled
with the pictures and stories that chroniclers build,
where innumerable books lie to hand on the shelves
and where fresh curiosity liberally delves.… Continued

Polixeni Papapetrou: MY HEART – still full of her

Traveled over her face, and found her there no more…
I thought to myself that a woman unknown
Had adopted by chance that voice and those eyes
And I let the chilly statue pass
Looking at the skies.

In 1833 the younger poet and dandy Alfred de Musset met the novelist George Sand and both fall passionately in love. On seeing Sand, the nom de plume of Amandine-Aurore-Lucile Dudevant, long after their love affair ended, he writes a fervent poem of loss, longing and yearning, remembering their tumultuous relationship and epistolary liaison.… Continued

Polixeni Papapetrou MY HEART – still full of her catalogue

My Heart catalogue 2018

Ten poems on ‘My heart—still full of her’ by Robert Nelson

I once was

I’m the duchess, the courtesan, countess and maid;
I’ve frequented the courts and the farmyard and trade;
I’m a milkmaid, a diva, a servant and queen
I’m the beauty of coy and mysterious mien
who addresses the poet who wants to revere her
with swooning hyperbole styled to get near her,
to fashion her softness and ply it with charm
for the slyest intention to own and disarm.… Continued

THE TENDER GAZE: a detour down the garden path

THE TENDER GAZE IPP

THE TENDER GAZE: a detour down the garden path

Flowers are transient and protean forms. Their life cycle is short lived: the bud blooms and its splendor emerges but then it wilts and dies. The beginning is tethered to the end in a graceful arc. There is sorrow but also beauty in this gesture. A petal falling from its stem retains its elegance.… Continued

Rhapsodies from the bower: Polixeni Papapetrou’s Eden

Rhapsodies from the bower

Rhapsodies from the bower: Polixeni Papapetrou’s Eden

A beautiful young female figure is immersed in a garden of flowers, a vertical garden that doesn’t recede into deep space but presses itself onto the surface of the photograph. The model has flowers behind her, in front of her, upon her, all around her. Her form is rhapsodized by stitches of blooms and leaves, engulfed by nature but not contained by the three levels of representation that compress figure and ground.… Continued