#593 Le Paysage de Baucis

I have discovered how to paint the emptiness between a hat 
& a man’s suit without suggesting ‘the invisible man.’ 
— René Magritte, letter to André Bosmans, 19 February 1966
Let's face it, the face isn't
there. Well, not completely.
The major aspects — eyes,
nose, lips — proportionate,
in place, posed & poised 
between a starched collar & 
a hat — no, not the usual 
bowler but a fedora this 
time around. Nothing there
to suggest the mythic con-
nection that the title implies
except perhaps disguise. Un-
less the emptiness of the suit
might be intended to conjure 
up the image of a landscape 
after a major flood has swept 
everything away. Which may
be a way to bring the myth be-
hind the title into the picture, 
though it won't be included in
this poem. Instead, a reference: 
Ovid, The Methamorphoses, Book
VIII, lines 611 through to 724.

#592 The Endless Chain

There is a serious motif to 
this piece — three men from
different eras on one horse
underlining the linear con-
tinuity of passing time & 
how similar things recur at 
intervals — but I find myself 
sidetracked thinking of the 
endless chain of variations 
that the passage of time has 
brought to that nursery rhyme 
with the opening line: Ride a 
cock-horse to Banbury Cross.