Monet with Cataracts By the Sea: A Fantasy
A poem by Jan Zlotnik Schmidt

Monet with Cataracts By the Sea: A Fantasy
“I no longer perceived colors with the same intensity… I no longer painted light with the same accuracy. Reds appeared muddy to me, pinks insipid, and the intermediate and lower tones escaped me.”

Monet mourned the luminous
blue violet pink lavender tints
lost to him. Living with his jaundiced
view of his beloved gardens.

These patches of dimmed sight
almost unendurable.
His paintbrushes relegated
to bringing forth lurid reds
mustard strokes muddy
blotches like toadstools
for his beloved lily pads and ponds.

And what if he afflicted
with those cataracts could come to the sea?
Would the tropical sunlight
break through the fog of his world?

Let’s imagine him painting
in this equatorial light
quicksilver spangling the waves
sunlight heat and fierce winds
careening through him

a new kind of grace
stripping away despair.
On a blank canvas of mourning
brightness unveiled. Revealed.

About the Author:

Jan Zlotnik Schmidt’s work has been published in many journals including Kansas Quarterly, The Alaska Quarterly Review, Memoir (and), The Vassar Review, and Gyroscope. Her poetry volumes include We Speak in Tongues; She had this memory (the Edwin Mellen Press) and Foraging for Light (Finishing Line Press).  Her poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Press Prize. 

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