She Who Was In Love With Rodin, by Ellen Chia

Self-Portrait, by Gwen John (Wales) 1902.

She Who Was In Love With Rodin

I have been gazing ardently 
At a self-portrait of a woman
Born exactly a century before me,
Gwendolen Mary John her name
Or Gwen John as she is commonly known.

Her egg-shaped facial contours,
Alabaster-like complexion 
And petite frame beg
At first glance to suggest
A malleable reed-like demeanor.
But when I look into those eyes -
Those eyes that are not looking 
Directly at me but penetrating
Through some glimpses
Of her heart's ruminations
Bespeak traces of
Steely detachment, of
Self-possession amidst
The world's incessant clamourings;
The voice of her thoughts 
Her only audibles, 
Her one true north.

Whatever passions that had steered
The then painted self would
In two years succeeding
Be consumed through and through
By a franco passion as crimson bold as the
Artist's own blouse.

You could say she was wilfully
Toying with fire,
One that would potentially 
Reduce her to mere ashes;
Scattering her core into
Infinitesimal bits.
Burned she did and loved.
This love, this slavish devotion 
To her Maître Rodin
Who sculpted her 
Likeness cast in bronze -
Though celebrated with fame,
Her love was not.
She, one of his many muses and lovers
But he, the wellspring of her life.

And so it was, 
as played out by
Love's cunning;
The phoenix rose
And blazed the sky, 
Only to orbit
The indifferent sun.

Ellen Chia
​
Ellen Chia exchanged her corporate heels for paintbrushes in 2007 and had since embarked on a journey from Singapore toThailand as a self-taught artist. When she is not painting, Ellen enjoys going on solitary walks in woodlands and along beaches where Nature's treasure trove impels her to document her findings and impressions using the language of poetry.