So Much Seeing to be Done

From Matisse to Pollock to Whom?

Funny how looking at a Matisse twenty years ago
has taken me on a meander to Pollock and Monet
and many other artists

Looking closely leads to seeing
Seeing can provoke observation and thinking
I stroke my naked chin as I tilt my head

Pondering the possible implications
of what I see that can never be found
when looking at a poster or art book

Matisse was my baseline For decades
the thing I most enjoyed was how he
let his footsteps show

When I saw one of his paintings
on a gallery wall I made a point
of heading in his direction

so he might reveal to me what he
had been thinking as he painted
I looked at his color choices his alterations

of shape or composition. In virtually every case
he left a sliver of the original choice visible
It was most delightful when

he over-painted an area of color with a new color
Each layer of paint indicated not
just a change in hue but a refinement

Matisse painted
until the painting
was just perfect

I was skipping from one Matisse to the next
in the MoMA when I ran out of Matisses
Across the gallery was a Pollock

I laughed to myself that Jackson Pollock
would ever show me anything
He like Picasso painted and when finished

signed the canvas. There was nothing to learn
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!”
These words rang in my ears.

I looked and having looked
saw what others had missed
Whose work shall I look at next?

So much seeing to be done