Cézanne's Apples Poem by Susan Gardner

CÉZANNE'S APPLES

Eye-shape bowl
ringed dark around the iris
periphery between color and air

Suspended within the apparent ivory black
flat black bands concentrate roundness
border between light and no light

viridian, carmine, cochineal
cinnabar, miraculous red becomes green
citrine, golden light of powdered gems
cobalt, cerulean, indigo

Paris green, Paris blue
Prussian blue, wanting red, Diesbach made sky
Hooker's green, for his perfect green leaves
Payne's gray, less black than black,
precise tints seep through leaking light
Vermeer blue, precious pure ultramarine,
lapis lazuli from Badakshan, blooming with lead

umber, the smell of Italy's hillsides
sienna, Tuscany's earth, moved to galleries

lead, life to colors, death to artists

paint linen geometry

eyes open to the shape of the world as it may be