Poem of the month
Selected by David Underdown who also provides the commentary.
Street in Samois
after the painting by Odilon Redon (1888)
Once, in this deserted street –
a short street of golden stone
that draws you in to its vanishing point;
houses that conjure cosy, homely, warm,
that promise interiors of workers,
and their families eating, drinking,
chatting at the kitchen table, houses
that turn their backs on the outside silence –
Redon sketched a boy
carrying a heavy bundle of sticks,
weighed down in midday heat
labouring up the sandy road.
But now, as he and his wife
mourn the loss of their first child, Jean,
Redon removes the lad and his burden
from the final painting.
