Corot

On Vue prise à Narni, 1826
The Louvre version

Nothing is vaguely true:
The broken bridge, the phony lane,
The pseudo-classic veneer
Distracting from the genuine pain

Corot brings to the blur
Of the air and the land
Running away from his touch:
The rest of it otherwise bland,

Almost landfill, a crutch
(As so many beaches
Are frauds, dredged
From neighboring fringes

Just out of sight), edged
By a nightmare of haze,
Or by an unkempt hedge
Where realistic cows graze—

But still he was keen
On filling the landscape in,
Rhyming the sky with the blue,
And making something begin,

As if his eye could only pursue
The well-framed, the meaningful view.

Redone January 19th, 2022
Kailua