A Bit of a Stretch: An Acknowledgment

Offered to the public at
Large, in the vicinity of
The City of Brotherly
And Sisterly love and
Affection, is the motif.

A modest landscape hangs
In a museum hallway: a
Gustave Courbet, The
Fringe of the Forest.

The painting appears as
An example of the tactile
Sublime; a subliminal
Kinship extends a filial
Stretch for viewers alike.

The curator preserves the
Edge, though oblique:
The hallowed ground,
The indigenous Nature.

Prior to the leaves falling,
A camera is at the ready for
A pictorial snapshot.

The photographer, unaware
Until months later of the
Predominant influencer,
Cues the focus and shutters
The lens, troubling aptly
Memory: cultural dé jà vu,
A marvel.

In edit mode,
The graphic designer
Sharpens the reminiscent
simulacrum; a vivid filter
Is applied to a cropped
Image, the tone contrasted,
The hue saturated.

The flowing lineage
By coincidental osmosis,
By scholarly book,
By lessons learned--

There is an
Artistic/academic
Dissent/allegiance
Perpetuated between
The sketchy mind and
The referenced look.

_________________________
"Courbet's Legacy in the Twentieth Century." Courbet and the Modern Landscape, by Charlotte Nalle Eyerman, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2006, pp. 21-53.