Photographing Eden by Gray Jason;

Author:Gray, Jason;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2008-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

My Daughter as the Angel Gabriel in the Tableau Vivant of Van Grap’s Annunciation

I gave birth to an angel, which is wrong

Twice over, though it’s hard to resist the thought.

I neither gave birth to her (just ask my wife)

Nor is she an angel (just ask her rattled teacher).

And yet there she is, in white and wings,

Long lily in one hand, the other held

To Mary as God’s proxy. Scrap semantics,

Embrace your sentimentality, I say,

Despite the better angels of my nature.

She is still as she never is at home.

Still enough to be one of the host.

I do not want responsibility

For words, so let my daughter be an angel,

Let the painting live as if a stone were rolled.

It is the ultimate trompe l’oeil on stage,

They are there, and they are not, the way

I could pull back the curtain on this sight

To show you all the brushstrokes, that the child

On stage is not my daughter, but may be

An angel yet, one of those who is there

And not there in the corners of our eyes,

Which this little play has meant to fool,

Not out of any malice for the viewer

But to make a world in which I have a daughter,

Because I wish I did, and never will.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.