Cezanne's Tears, by David Leeds

Still Life with Commode, by Paul Cezanne (France) c.1887-1888

Cezanne's Tears
 
When we look at clouds, we see
flying horseheads or bearded giants
and miss the real.
Over two and a half billion drops
per cubic foot.
Formations weighing
over half a million tons.
Friction juggling gravity
until the drops exceed
four one-hundreds of an inch.
 
What falls then, are not tears
or a simple transformation.
It is like Cezanne’s apples.
How he traded the sweetness of the flesh
For the cold force inside,
the force that binds the universe.
 
David Leeds
 
Author's note: "In my freshman year introductory art history class, we studied Cezanne’s Still Life with Commode, which was right there in front of us in the Fogg Museum. I was so mesmerized and kicked in the gut by this painting that I switched my major from government to art history. I was determined to understand the strength of my reaction and the fact that these apples seemed less like ordinary pieces of fruit, than some kind of very profound representation of essential experience and mysteries. I continued to focus on Cezanne and wrote my senior honours thesis on his self- portraits."

David Leeds is a sculptor and poet who currently resides in Ojai California. He studied Art History at Harvard. Before devoting himself to poetry and sculpting, he wrote and directed the cult western, Shoot The Sun Down, with Chris Walken and Margot Kidder. David studied poetry with Jack Gilbert and Linda Gregg, among others. His work has appeared in the California Quarterly Review, Parnassus Literary Journal, and in the upcoming September issue of Passager Journal as well as others.