A friend in Context asks, how to frame a masterpiece

for Valéry Lorenzo,

giver of problems

The Huntington, the hometown library

and bicycling destination of my ear-

ly years, presents a Christmas study

of camellias from the borders of the

place, and shows off a nifty margin-

al autograph in a copy of Julius Cae-

sar from a circulating library. But

nobody goes to the Huntington with-

out visiting the Gainsboroughs, and

always the same one draws the gasp

of anyone old enough to stand. I re-

member this because I was mastering

both tricks when I first laid eyes

upon it. At the time, I thought he

was awfully big, but not unpleasant,

very high, but in no way haughty -

I was too young to know suspicion -

and mesmerisingly wrapped. Unchar-

acteristically, I discover that time

has not diminished it, even as gasp-

ing and standing have lost a little

of their original edge. Maybe frames

are replaced every so often, to the

refreshment of how a canvas appears;

but I'm content that this one bears
unchanging delight to children, for-
ever. (My marginalia, anyway).

  

For the camellias, I have only
treasurings of sweet memory. They

were propagated in our own garden,

nearby, by my father, who delight-

ed in original graftings of his

selections. How interesting, it

strikes me, for no reason what so

ever, that those camellias have

long been mulched for the enrich-

ment of others I've never seen.

It is a fact that reacquaints me

with my sense of his fatherhood,
and this contents me, too, as a
frame for my undoubted degradation.

But we are willing to accommodate
ourselves to the framing of any
masterpiece. After all, it's also
a protective act, and offers con-
soling conservation. Yet, I don't
mind to concede, that one can't be
framed and still be seen, whole. 
It is a problem we have with the
photographs of Valéry Lorenzo -
they don't mesmerise, they remind.


    Steady, like a log
    riding a sawmill's spillway,
    the steady coydog.

Paul Muldoon
Moy Sand and Gravel
  News Headlines from
  the Homer Noble Farm
  [fragment]
op. cit.

iv  photography Valéry Lorenzo©