The Persistence Of Dali's Surreal Clock Poem by Paul Hartal

Salvador Dali painted "The Persistence of Memory" in 1931.
It depicts a surreal landscape with fluid, melting pocket watches.
On one of these, painted in orange color, ants huddle
And gnaw the soft dial, enhancing the eerieness of the scene.

The soft, melting watches of the small,24cm x 33 cm, canvas
are supposedly stand for unconscious symbols
of the relativity of space and time. But did the artist really
Want to express a meditative mood on the decay
Of the collapse of our established vision of a solid cosmic order?

Dali himself claimed that his soft watches were not inspired
By Einstein's theory but by a Camembert cheese melting
In the sun.In any case, the painting's iconography may reflect
a dream that the artist remembered in waking consciousness.

Salvador Dali has grown into a legendary figure larger than life.
Take, for example, his famous, perfectly coiffed, long,
andwacky, handlebar, waxed mustache.
Dali explained that the he decided to grow amustache
because he was a non-smoker.
"It is better for the health", he said, adding with a straight face,
thathis mustache served him "to pass unobserved".

My clock celebrates Salvador Dali everyday.
At 10 past 10 its hands take up a unique position,
And perform a transcendental act:in a surreal display
they mimic the artist's uncanny mustache,
If you just care enough to look.