Poem: Seduction

Seduction

The Bathers, Les Grandes Baigneuses, Paul Cézanne

bathers in naked strokes of light

pose

unburdened

I hear saplings crack in their play

and laughter as they lounge

in lusty rhythms of flesh

against blue –

Cezanne’s illusion of reality

here loss… blur of grief

is an enigma

free with the bathers

caught in beauty

immersed

in their unfinished form

suspended from meaning

escape for the day

I linger sheltered

under his chestnut tree

Colleen Keating is a Sydney poet who has published four collections of poetry, including The Dinner Party: A poetic response, and two award-winning verse novels in Hildegard of Bingen: A poetic journey and Olive Muriel Pink: her radical and idealistic life. Her new poetry collection Ring With the Bells, is due in mid-2025. Her books are available through Adelaide’s Ginninderra Press.

Editor’s note: readers may like to refresh themselves regarding the story of Cézanne’s painting The Large Bathers, considered one of the masterpieces of modern art, that was still unfinished after seven years at his time of death. Then there are his multiple works of chestnut trees, based on those of the Cézanne family estate in Aix-en-Provence.

Readers’ original and unpublished poems of up to 40 lines can be emailed, with postal address, to [email protected]. Submissions should be in the body of the email, not as attachments. A poetry book will be awarded to each accepted contributor.