2 poems by Godelieve de Bree

Mahoning, 1956

After Franz Kline

not hanging

over head like an anvil

on a rope

not scent or slow 

wrinkly process or pulling 

a sweater 

out to a long crimped

thread not diminutive 

via sex not intrusive 

thought yellow 

threshold of platform 

or bridge not slack 

bin bag not in film 

or a packet 

of pills not fly 

on a flower 

not memento mori

terrible accident

sleep nor peace

night creatures, 1965

After Lee Krasner

listen / i wanted to be a pain / ter / with a small studio / but now i know that kind of living / isn’t for me / instead i watch plastic bottles / roll across the tube floor / stand in front of paintings / size of my body / envious / been a domestic plaything / for men / on some sick metronome between limp & livid / had i submitted / or / had an ulcerous force / dictated my decisions / feel watched / if not by myself / then knots / on trees or worse / eyes / in mirrors / which flash / back & forth / as if being stared down / by the same disgruntled stranger / again & again / is my life something / i can survive

__________________

Godelieve de Bree is a poet and critic based in London. Her creative and/or critical work has appeared in the LARB, Poetry London, Oxford Poetry and Tate. She is a member of the London Library Emerging Writers Programme 24/25