Dusk at Baie des Anges, 1932, by Barbara Crooker

Dusk at La Baie des Anges, Nice, by Raoul Dufy (France). 1932.

Dusk at Baie des Anges, 1932
                poem based on an excerpt of the painting

Dufy studied couleur-lumière, the effect
of light on colour, turned the Mediterranean
into a pool of flat cerulean.  No wind riffles
the water; this is sea as satin tablecloth 
or slab of marble.  That smooth.  That cool.  
Here in Virginia, blue jays 
have been interrupting my morning 
with their imperious squawks.
Their feathers, the blue fire of the Côte d’Azur
in summer.  In Dufy’s oils, the sky sings
hyacinthine.  There is no motion; even the lone
palm on the right hand side of the painting
holds its breath.  The figures in the foreground
are poised, waiting for night to come down 
and paint them midnight, cold steel, indigo. . . .

Barbara Crooker

This poem is from the author's book, Les Fauves, C&R Press, 2017.

Barbara Crooker is a poetry editor for Italian-Americana, and has published eight full collections and twelve chapbooks.  Her latest book is Les Fauves (C&R Press, 2017).  She has won a number of awards, including the WB Yeats Society of New York Award, the Thomas Merton Poetry of the Sacred Award, and three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Creative Writing Fellowships.  A VCCA fellow, she has published widely in such journals as Nimrod, Poet Lore, Rattle, The Green Mountains Review, The Denver Quarterly, and The Beloit Poetry Journal. website:  www.barbaracrooker.com