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Dutch Interiors: Daily Dose of Poetry and Art

Dutch Interiors: Daily Dose of Poetry and Art

542px-Johannes_Vermeer_-_A_lady_writing_(c_1665-1666)

It’s hard to resist a poem that directly references works of art. The hardest part was trying to decide which art to use. though not so hard after all. I was tempted to choose a still life, but I do love Vermeer.

Dutch Interiors

by Jane Kenyon

Christ has been done to death
in the cold reaches of northern Europe
a thousand thousand times.
Suddenly bread
and cheese appear on a plate
beside a gleaming pewter beaker of beer.

Now tell me that the Holy Ghost
does not reside in the play of light
on cutlery!

A Woman makes lace,
with a moist-eyed spaniel lying
at her small shapely feet.
Even the maid with the chamber pot
is here; the naughty, red-cheeked girl. . . .

And the merchant’s wife, still
in her yellow dressing gown
at noon, dips her quill into India ink
with an air of cautious pleasure.

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