Auguste Rodin ‘The Muse’
Rodin’s Muse
Alison Fell
She writhes like hawthorns,
is dark and demented,
her impossibly heavy head
a branch of thoughts the winds
have knotted. In all violence
she loans herself, (this muse
who promised him a flat blue
slate to shine his shadow on)
Her calves are rivers
from the glacial snout,
her bruised elbows abut
a space mute and compressing
as rock. The torture starts
not in the lovely torque
of the belly, or even gravity itself,
(this muse who gives no release,
is not delicate, does not dance)
but in a black burning at the pit
of the throat, a capture
of pain and angles somewhere
between his heart and her silence
Alison Fell was born and brought up in Scotland, and studied sculpture at Edinburgh Art College. She has worked in mixed media theatre, in Women’s Centres, and as a journalist on publications including Spare Ribe. She has been Writer in Residence in two London Boroughs, and now teaches creative writing in adult education. She has read poetry widely at venues throughout the UK. Publications include a childeren’s novel The Grey Dancer (Collins/ Fontana), Every Move You Make, an adult novel (Virago, 1984) and Poetry collections include Kisses for Mayakovsky (Virago, 1984) and The Seven Deadly Sins (1988), The Seven Cardinal Virtues and Serious Hysterics (1992), all published by Serpents Tail.
Chris den Engelsman ‘De Denker’ – PicturePoster030-25 –