Surface Matters, by Lisa Olsson

Surface Matters

"The most interesting thing is what it is itself."
Vija Celmins

I saw two stones yesterday
at the Met Breuer
inside a plexiglas case.
Identical, but one was stone 
the other cast in bronze
and painted by Vija Celmins.

What if you can't tell what's real
if you can't tell a Rembrandt 
from a fake?
If your husband dies 
after 68 years of marriage 
and no matter how many times
your daughter tells you he's gone
you don't believe it.

A man came over to look
his face close to the top 
of the box, and close to mine.
We muttered like old friends
our eyes going from one
stone to the other--
which is which?
We were unaware
of being happy.

On the way out I saw
the people in the first
room of the exhibit.
I was jealous of them
still locked in trance
faces inches away 
from Vija's ocean drawings 
which appear to be photographs
even close up.

Vija spent ten years
on the ocean drawings
sharpening her pencil
shading a wavelet
shaping the larger undulation
of the surface of the sea
square centimetre 
by square centimetre.

Lisa Olsson

"I am a poet, artist and cellist living in the Hudson valley. My poems have been published in various literary journals such as The Westchester Review, BigCityLit, and Lumina, but a particular joy for me is when someone I know is walking in Sleepy Hollow and they come across the poetry walk and read my poem inscribed in the sidewalk. I play cello in the Yonkers Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Kort String Quartet. I draw and paint in my home studio. My experiences making art and music inspire my writing, and I enjoy letting the different modes of expression influence and inform each other."
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