Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Beata Beatrix When the air clears and the moon returns, it’s Beata Beatrix I recall though Rossetti’s Pre-Raphaelite symbolism seems a little smeary and sentimental for an Okie, on a back porch mulling obsession and half a can of Lone Star. Tonight, I can imagine Rossetti's suffering: his Lizzie gone, how he buried a reef of new poems clutched in her pale fingers, then, years later, empty and tired of scavenging the gray creeks of his imagination for some great mudcat of a sonnet that didn’t want to be dragged out of its hollow log, he dug her up at midnight from Christ’s Church Graveyard and found a fat worm had bored a hole through each page. If this were Oaklawn Cemetery, where spectres of long dead Okies drag tired wings through calcified stone, the ghosts of my cousins and uncle would have raised their longnecks then laughed because in Oklahoma you’ve got to have a sense of humor to carry you past the grave. After that, Rossetti kept painting this one picture over and over: small details shifting, a white dove dipped in cadmium red, the light clearing, and even Dante in the background looking up as if to say what the hell? Markham Johnson Markham Johnson won the Pablo Neruda Prize from Nimrod, and his first poetry collection was published by the University Press of Florida. He has an MFA from Vermont College, and his poems have been published widely in magazines including Nine Mile, Coal Hill, and Library Journal.
3 Comments
2/4/2019 11:27:58 am
Good one! I like the play of distance from and closeness to the painting.
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Carole Mertz
2/4/2019 09:25:04 pm
Mr. Markham Johnson, you have created an outstanding poem. I find your "Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Beata Beatrix" remarkable not only for its evocative imagery, but also for the skillful contrasting of Rosetti's time and place with those of your family member, i.e. "those who would have laughed." The Dante / Beatrice enigmatic relationship lies behind the poem, as it does behind the painting. Love your work!
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2/27/2022 02:10:07 pm
Had bored a hole through each page. If this were Oaklawn Cemetery, where spectres, I truly appreciate your great post!
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