Not to Be Reproduced, by Mark A. Murphy

Not to Be Reproduced: portrait of poet Edward James, by Rene Magritte (Belgium), 1937.

Not to be Reproduced
 
Life obliges me to do something, so I paint. – Rene Magritte

Poet. I have seldom read you, but I have seen
something of the infinite abyss in you.
Strange, how I talk to you now, as if in limbo,
studying the silence that envelops you.

One can’t help, but wonder what’s going on
in that beautiful, surrealist head of yours,
two years ahead of the war, three years ahead
of Trotsky’s assassination in Coyoacan.

I’m not certain if what I see is a portrait
of a poet, or the mind of a genius.
When I look at the back of your head
in the mirror, I struggle with writer’s block

to say anything more meaningful than:
Ceci n’est pas une pipe, which really translates
as: ‘this is not a portrait, but a lesson
in portraiture, as much as it is a lesson in life.’

I wonder if you agree with your painter friend
that art is equal to the mysteries of life?
Like Rene, I conceal nothing. My only hope
is to look the abyss in the face without prejudice.

Mark A. Murphy

Mark A. Murphy’s studied philosophy as an under-graduate and poetry as a post-graduate. His poems have appeared in over 160 magazines world-wide.

​