Today, NaPoWriMo would have us "turn our vision outward, and write fan letters. I challenge you to write a poem in the form of a fan letter to a celebrity. Now, this could be a celebrity from long ago, and needn’t be an actor or singer (though it could be). You could write to George Washington or Dorothy Dandridge, Marie Curie or The Weekend."
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| Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory |
Dear Salvador,
dear dead demented dear one,
let me tell you about your posters,
how I put them up on the wall of my room
when I lived on Eglinton East in Toronto in the seventies
so I'd see them when first I woke
and yes, I admit, so I could impress any boys
who happened to end up there with my artfulness,
but back to your posters, there were two,
the one with the clocks dripping all over the place
and the other I'm not sure of,
although it might have been The Great Masturbator,
if I was home in Canada
I'd dig out the relevant album,
find a picture of the wall in question
so we'd know for sure, but I'm in Mexico
in a town I think you'd have loved
so I have to work with the magic of the Internet
which you never had the — opportunity? misfortune? —
to encounter in your lifetime but with a mind like yours
that produced the kind of art it did
I don't think you missed anything.
So yes, posters with images of your paintings
slathered themselves onto my wall that was then covered
with half-inch cork board
so your pictures were framed in brown.
For months and months the room smelled
of cork and I'll tell you a secret,
to this day, when I'm in a flooring store,
I gravitate to the cork display
no matter what I'm there for
and inhale the deep, rich scent
that always reminds me of you.
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| Salvador Dali - The Great Masturbator |
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