Three poems by Jack Kohler

We landed and he said,
A thief just fled from this room to the sea he
            Was kind.

All too tall to steal,
Each of the room’s colors was a proper noun.
          Green, greenish; Pink, pink; the studious Blue.

His blue furniture
Lured like the sea--
          Fossils partially beached.

Then we got at dinner--slow . . .
Then we sank a bit.
         Then dusk up

Laid the floor flat
But the musical chairs will lean us
          On the sea.

Henri Matisse, "Interior with a Goldfish Bowl" (1914), Oil on canvas 58"x 38"

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Paul Cezanne, "Still Life with Plaster Cupid" (1895), Oil on paper on board 27.5" x 22.5"

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He ribbons up
A shy treasure sky
With rickety constellations:

Gold bears with drawn
Paws, crabs
Tacked up as fish.

Here, plaster (it’s cardboard)
Is astral dandruff.

With his head in a cloud--
          To oohs and aahs--
And the stars put to bed--
          To oohs and aahs--
He just pasted and pasted away.

Joseph Cornell, "Cassiopeia 1" (1960), Construction 9.875" x 14.875" x 3.75"

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Jack is a poet and graduate of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop. His book Still Lifes is the winner of the 2020 Deena Davidson Friedman prize. His work has recently taken visual art as its subject--painting and photography in particular. He lives in St. Louis and spends most of his time at the museum.