by Paul Hartal
Anyone who paints the meadow blue
And the sky green with yellow clouds
Should be sterilized or executed,
Adolf Hitler said.
For many years I waited with a response to that.
Finally on a spring morning I took a canvas and
With slow and measured brushstrokes I painted
The sky green with yellow clouds
And the meadow blue.
I did this not only as a symbolical act
Of defiance but also in reply to the present day
Followers of the Nazi dictator who continue
To admire and worship him.
Prior to his rise to power Adolf painted
Nostalgic landscapes. He also designed
The Nazi flag in which he reversed
The ancient Hindu and Buddhist icon
Of the swastika from a symbol of peace
To a symbol of violence and hatred.
As the supreme military commander
Of the Reich he liked to impress his minions
By quoting from memory encyclopaedic data
Such as the exact tonnage of each warship of
Every nation. However, General Franz Halder
Described Hitler as a grotesque neurotic
Who gave irrational orders. The fuehrer wanted
To outperform Napoleon and in the process
Fifty million people died in Europe.
Six million of them were Jews.
This monstrous criminal of history also posed
As art theorist although he failed to grasp
The principle of artistic freedom. He forbade
Aesthetic experimentation and raged at signs
Of the flight of imagination. He feared the idea
Of liberating perception from the tight hold of
Appearances because we can see what we cannot
See only through the unique eye of the free artist.
Anyone who paints the meadow blue
And the sky green with yellow clouds
Should be sterilized, or executed,
Hitler said on October 15, 1933 in Munich
In a cornerstone laying speech
For the House of German Art.
The dictator confiscated the right to see
The world in a different way than he saw it.
An ignoramus, Hitler was evidently unaware
Of the stunning colour phenomena of nature.
He did not know or ignored that often times
Before violent thunderstorms strike
The sky does display hues of green
In the visible electromagnetic spectrum
With a wavelength of about 510 nanometres.
Also depending on the position of the sun
And weather conditions in an electric sky
The clouds can appear yellow
With a visible electromagnetic wavelength
Of about 570 nanometres on the spectrum.
Those who look for them can find
Every tint and shade in the firmament.
When rainbows appear in the sky they play
Magnificent symphonies of all the hues
And colours ranging from red through violet.
And the earth itself abounds
In an infinite scale and wealth of colours.
Amid distant memories of sweet fragrances
I remember red summer fields of poppy seeds
Blooming cobalt chicories and indigo oat grasses
As the sun was traversing high in the sky
A loyal companion to my walk through
Lavender irises and purple periwinkles
In wild-flower strewn blue meadows.
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ABOUT THE POET ~
A man of many Odysseys, Paul Hartal is a Canadian poet, author and artist born in Szeged, Hungary. His critically acclaimed books include Postmodern Light (poetry, 2006), Love Poems (2004), The Kidnapping of the Painter Miró (novel, 1997, 2001), The Brush and the Compass (1988), Painted Melodies (1983) and A History of Architecture (1972) ., In 1975 he published in Montreal A Manifesto on Lyrical Conceptualism. Lyco Art is a new element on the periodic table of aesthetics, which intertwines the logic of passion with the passion of logic. In 1980 the Lyrical Conceptualist Society hosted the First International Poetry Exhibition in Montreal., In 1978 Hartal exhibited his paintings at the Musée du Luxembourg and the Raymond Duncan Gallery in France and his canvas Flowers for Cézanne won the Prix de Paris. He also has displayed his oeuvre in museums and galleries in New York, Montreal, Budapest, as well as many other places., He approaches poetry with the credo that the heart of poetry is the poetry of the heart. A recurring theme of his recent work explores the human tragedies of wars and genocides.
Last updated March 22, 2012