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I'll be brief. My first reaction when asked to write about the most influential work of art in the last 100 years was to resist it. What audacity could I muster to make bold such a claim? On what criteria might I base my assessment? I've not conducted extensive research, held my ear to the ground of public opinion nor canvassed a range of experts in any field. What to do?
I'll bend the question to suit my purpose. I'll move to consider 'the one' for me of greatest influence. 'The one' work of art, a poem, and the one that wrote it, Raymond Carver.
Of all the poets, the great poets who move and inspire me, who transform understanding and open the window of perception to broader views, in my heart and mind I cannot go past Raymond Carver. Simply, it is his ability to capture, describe and transform the human experience with the common word, the word refined. The word made precise.
And with that, this poem, of love, of Eros, of rapture: a fleeting moment that I may revisit, a moment that sets to hold me, gently, in perpetual contemplation.
Woman Bathing
Naches River. Just below the falls.
Twenty miles from any town. A day
of dense sunlight
heavy with odors of love.
How long have we?
Already your body, sharpness of Picasso,
is drying in this highland air.
I towel down your back, your hips,
with my undershirt.
Time is a mountain lion.
We laugh at nothing,
and as I touch your breasts
even the ground-
squirrels
are dazzled.
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