Kandinsky at the Guggenheim [by David Lehman]

I went to Kandinsky
at the Guggenheim
in the rain today
the choice was immediate
Gelb Rot oder Blau
I chose Gelb
an aggressive triangle
a peaceful square a cosmic circle
and thou

On August 1, 1914 hostilities broke out
time for one last painting
before clearing out of Munich
and heading back to Moscow
That's my Kandinsky
riding blue on a blue horse
on a blue mountain the shapes shift
but the motion is constant
and the people are split
between destruction (red)
and sunrise (yellow)

If the mountain is blue
it's a triangle on graph paper
the signature on music paper
a wrecked composition
The archer is there shooting
the arrows of symbolic logic
the sky a white trapezoid
with ribbons rods billiard balls
rubber balls eyeballs keyboard
checkerboard planets snakes and canoes
they do mean something but you can't tell

what where each of thirty squares
has its sign Im schwarzen Viereck
so he leaves Germany a second time
in 1933 a dominant curve
in the soft Paris light he signs his name
with a slightly tilted K
in a right angle in the lower left corner
and the moon is in F sharp minor
can you hear it?
and that's what yellow means
and why it's my favorite color.

-- DL

Comments

[Laura Orem]

Lovely, lovely, lovely!

[Emma Trelles]

Yes, DL. That's exactly right.

[Amy Allara]

Great piece--great lines--in particular:

'and the moon is in F sharp minor/can you hear it?'

'they do mean something but you can't tell'