Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Museum(s)

“The building has the ability to wrap itself around you, making you feel safe. All the animosity if the street is left outside, for everyone in there has come for the same reason. To be humbled by art.”
― Carrie Adams, The Godmother

The front view of National Museum New Delhi India

"When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums."

 ― Andy Warhol

“As once-colonized nations seek to stand on their own, the countries once denuded of their past seek to assert their independent identities through the objects that tie them to it. The demand for restitution is a way to reclaim history, to assert a moral imperative over those who were once overlords.”
― Sharon Waxman, Loot: The Battle over the Stolen Treasures . . .

Street facade of the Castillo Serrallés — overlooking Ponce, in southern Puerto Rico. 
(An agricultural museum that showcases the sugar cane and its derivative rum industry)

Midweek Motif ~ Museum(s)

Can museum be a verb?  I love museum-ed objects of art and history and the buildings that stage them and the evidence of choices made of what to include and why.  Lately, I sit down frequently, so appreciate the many benches that dot museums.  Also, I've grown to enjoy smaller and more obscure collections than in the past.  How about you?

Your Challenge: Pick a museum, pick any museum, and write a new poem that takes us there. 
 

The Louvre in Paris.

Museum Piece

by Richard Wilbur

The good grey guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.
Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of his hair.
See how she spins! The grace is there,
But strain as well is plain to see.
Degas loved the two together:
Beauty joined to energy.
Edgar Degas purchased once
A fine El Greco, which he kept
Against the wall beside his bed
To hang his pants on while he slept.

The Only Museum

By Ben Purkert

 

by this point you must be hungry

for God not the real thing only

flecks of gold paint the marble bust

of a half-bull half-man

today I took a visit to the only

museum and every last gallery was

packed with snow I mean this

literally the whole place

frozen I didn’t stay long

I was worried about melting

the art I touched my eyes lightly

to each flake and when I left

the museum I believed a bit more

in God the strangest thing was

I never shivered I knew love

the whole time

Truth is not the secret of a few

by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

'Truth is not the secret of a few

yet

you would maybe think so

the way some

librarians

and cultural ambassadors and

especially museum directors

act

you'd think they had a corner

on it

the way they

walk around shaking

their high heads and

looking as if they never

went to the bath

room or anything

But I wouldn't blame them

if I were you

They say the Spiritual is best conceived

in abstract terms

and then too

walking around in museums always makes me

want to

'sit down'

I always feel so

constipated

in those

high altitudes

Map of museums all over the world (interactive map)

   

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

              (Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Glory.)
 

When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums. Andy Warhol
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/museums

When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums. Andy Warhol
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/museums

When you think about it, department stores are kind of like museums. Andy Warhol
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/museums