Camille, by Denise Keenaghan

Camille Claudel, photography by Cesar (France) 1884

Camille
 
see her footfalls impressed
along the left blue bank--
gypsum scatters like dust,
busts of glass in satin light
 
she whittled her own skill
out of stone and soil
while still a child--
 
watch her fashion
with fingers no more thick
than the reeds and roots
with which she sleeps
 
seedlings small in her clay hands
hewing marble lilies sky blue
soap smooth, easy 
like her own sanguine eyes--
staid lips pressed tight
interring onyx-hard truth
 
devoutly zealous
making bronze kings--

like Ruth.

Denise Keenaghan

Denise Keenaghan is an English Literature teacher and poet originally from Austin, but currently living in Houston, Texas. Her work has been published in the St. Edward’s University literary magazine, The Sorin Oak Review (formerly The Aesthetic Voice) and in the University of St. Thomas of Houston’s Laurels literary journal. She is the recipient of the St. Edward’s University Ellen Garwood Poetry Award as an undergraduate student. She completed her MLA in Literature, and her thesis was recommended for publication. She and her husband have raised three creative and artistic sons, and she is currently working on a poetry compilation dedicated to the power of the female synesthetic voice.