La Chambre Des Reines

Painting: "Untitled" -2006- by Carolyn Coalson

The Portrait 

by Stanley Kunitz

My mother never forgave my father

for killing himself,

especially at such an awkward time

and in a public park,

that spring

when I was waiting to be born.

She locked his name

in her deepest cabinet

and would not let him out,

though I could hear him thumping.

When I came down from the attic

with the pastel portrait in my hand

of a long-lipped stranger

with a brave moustache

and deep brown level eyes,

she ripped it into shreds

without a single word

and slapped me hard.

In my sixty-fourth year

I can feel my cheek 

still burning.

*Stanley Kunitz* (1905 - 2006), noted American poet. Served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congres and as United States Poet Laureate in 2000. He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, and raised by his Lithuanian-Jewish mother and stepfather, who died when Kunitz was 14. His father, Solomon Z. Kunitz, a dressmaker, committed suicide six weeks before Kunitz was born.

Kunitz graduated "summa cum laude" from Harvard College and earned a master degree in English. He served in the US Army in the Second World War. Kunitz's poetry has won praise from all circles as being profound and well written. Many believe his poetry symbolism is influenced significantly by the work of Carl Jung. He enjoyed gardening and maintained one of the most impressive seaside gardens in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  

Source: Wikipedia