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Zelda

She and Scott were the face of the Jazz Age,
Drunk and riotous in post-war Paris,
He scribbling out page on potboiling page
To fund the wastage of two beaux esprits.
When the stock market crashed, in twenty-nine,
He ploughed on, as the now notorious
Gatsby scribe; she tumbled into decline,
Scorned by him who’d once been uxorious.

Institutionalized, she somehow wrote
Save Me the Waltz, whose modest yield repaid
His debts who, even now, could barely float;
She, halfway mad, hair prematurely grayed,
Died in a ferocious hospital fire,
Who’d once been Paris’s liveliest wire.

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Poet’s Note: Zelda outlived Scott by four years.

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Marie-Thérèse

In nineteen twenty-seven, walking by
A clothing store in Paris, Pablo spotted
Marie-Thérèse Walter; promptly besotted,
He slipped an arm underneath hers with, ‘I
Am Picasso.’ Thus began a liaison
With this voluptuous flesh-and-blood houri
Whom he was driven, in a white-hot fury,
On canvas after canvas to emblazon.

Enter Dora Maar, and Marie-Thérèse
Languished in their wake, while her portrayal
Populated salons and the defrayal
Of his return lengthened to years from days,
Till, endless leagues away, she heard he’d died
And, reaved of hope, committed suicide.

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Poet’s Note: 46-year-old Picasso met 17-year-old Walter In 1927. In 1935, he transferred his attention
to Marr. He died in 1973 and, four years later, Walter hanged herself in her garage. A houri is a beautiful, sensuous woman.

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Peter Austin is a retired Professor of English who lives in Toronto with his younger two daughters.

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12 Responses

  1. Jeremiah Johnson

    I really like the “Zelda” sonnet – I recently read Hemmingway’s “A Moveable Feast” and so she and Scott are fresh on my mind. Some great information and nicely arranged in this poem! I’m going to share it with my students at the university where I teach. Seems like most kids these days read Gatsby in high school, and I teach a lot of freshmen comp, so I expect they’ll find it thought-provoking.

    Reply
    • Peter Austin

      Jeremiah:

      Thanks for the feedback. Would you mind telling me at which university you teach, and in what courses you’re considering using ‘Zelda’?

      Thanks

      Reply
  2. Roy Eugene Peterson

    You found some fascinating subjects and deftly preserved them in poetry with wonderful and clever rhyming words.

    Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    Here are two great sonnet-portraits of well-known women. The one on Zelda is particularly good, and manages to pack a great deal of narrative into the limited space allowed. Zelda was wild, impetuous, zany, and a true Southern belle with a profound loyalty to the old Confederacy, of which her family was a prime representative.

    As for Marie-Therese, she was never a wife. She was not legally married to Picasso, since he had a Ukrainian wife and a child. She simply was his long-time mistress, along with several women. I love the use of two words in this sonnet: “houri” – usually limited to the description of harem women in Moslem countries; and “reaved” – an unusual variant of “bereaved” or “bereft.”

    Reply
  4. C.B. Anderson

    Message received: Be careful whom you fuck. I am more enlightened by this than I am blind-sided by it. Just sayin’.

    Reply
  5. Daniel Kemper

    But Joe, don’t you know that houri only means “raisins” ?

    lol

    Just goofing off and mocking some dubious Islamic apologists who wince at the reward of houris to the martyred.

    Anyway, I loved coming across notorious and uxorious. I’m going to pack them away for later use. Also, apparently letters have surfaced which show that Zelda had much more of a hand in Gatsby than is generally supposed. I admire the skill of Gatsby, btw, but feel like it was only a demonstration of some lost souls (like the Fitzgeralds) mocking and murdering the American Dream. A recent teacher, and self-avowed communist, loved it.

    Anyway, these ladies loving men of arts seem to come to difficult ends. You convey their tragedy with pathos. I prefer the opening of the second to the first as it reads much smoother to my ear, but I also love the continuingly fresh diction. Emblazon and liaison is pretty sweet.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      If all you’re going to get for Islamic martyrdom is raisins, rather than seventy hot pieces of virgin ass, then something’s wrong, or the religious propaganda office in Iran is truly incompetent. LOL!

      I think Zelda did have real talent, but unfortunately when one’s talent is inextricably linked with severe mental derangement, one’s artistic products will be spoiled or maimed in some serious ways. I’m glad she is receiving some serious recognition, but unfortunately when feminist academics get their teeth into someone she inevitably becomes just another subject for hagiography, rather that serious scholarly exploration.

      Reply
    • Peter Austin

      Daniel:

      Thanks for the feedback. I’ll take a second look at the opening of ‘Zelda’.

      Reply
  6. Daniel Kemper

    True, true. There’s a very long path between artistic inspiration and final product.

    Reply

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