At the Water's Edge, by Bonnie Naradzay

At the Water's Edge, by Paul Cezanne (France) 1890

At the Water's Edge

Why does Cezanne’s At the Water’s Edge transfix me,
stop me in my tracks?  The water and sky intertwine 
into shades of grayish green, a hint of blue, and white. 
 
Constable, after his beloved wife died, used oils on paper, 
the kind that cannot last long, to paint hundreds of views 
of clouds and sky above the green of trees all summer long. 
 
On the back of each cloud creation Constable inscribed 
the date, then noted what the weather was that day, as if 
he might find the key to heaven’s mediated blue with white. 
 
Spring came suddenly this year.  The trees unfurled their 
greenness almost overnight.  The sky was indirectly white,
like Cezanne’s, or like a cathedral’s interior, its airy light.
 
Here at the water’s edge clouds have filtered down to earth
in a filmy curtain that blurs the scene, mixing green in light,
making a muted beauty all its own.  This mesmerizing sight.

Bonnie Naradzay

Bonnie Naradzay: "Recent poems are in New Letters (Pushcart nomination), RHINO, Tampa Review, EPOCH, Tar River Poetry, Poet Lore, Anglican Theological Review, Seminary Ridge Review, The Xavier Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Passager, and other places; a poem will be published in the Kenyon Review Online. I earned an MA in English literature from Harvard University (which included my taking the course “The King James Bible as English Literature,” taught by Robert Lowell).  I lead poetry workshops at a day shelter for homeless people (Miriam’s Kitchen), and at a retirement centre (Ingleside), both in Washington DC. In 2010, I was awarded the University of New Orleans MFA Program’s Poetry Prize: a month’s stay in the castle of Ezra Pound’s daughter, Mary, in northern Italy. While there, I enjoyed having tea with Mary, hearing cuckoos call out during mating season, and hiking in the Dolomites.  More recently, in 2017 I earned a master’s degree in liberal arts at St. John’s College in Annapolis."