Gabriel de Cool (1854-1908), The Muse, 1895
Gabriel de Cool had a heck of a name, and he seems to have been principally a painter of nudes. This muse is certainly not the Muse of History, Dance, or of Epic Poetry. This muse looks more like the muse of absinthe, hashish, Symbolist Poetry, and kinky sex. The image is obviously kitsch, but it is the very successful, totally corrupting, kind of kitsch that makes you want to look again, and enjoy doing it.
Here She is. Her in all Her glorious glory.
Forever. Even after the End of All the Worlds.
After all the calendars & prophecies
Are reduced to Nothingness, She will still be.
After poor souls like me aren't even a memory.
After all the follies of conquerors & kings
& self-important authorities are dispersed
Into the Eternal Void. She will still be.
I have no choice but Love.
No choice but to love Her.
I always have even before my birth
As who I am this time.
She is the Multiversal Cosmos.
She brought me here. She preserves me.
She destroys me. Recreates me?
For a time upon an endless time perhaps.
She tempers me by Fire & Water.
At the end of the end She takes care of me.
Gently, violently, indifferently. She is my religion.
--GP aka JSW & Y.S. Warshofskii
24 December 2012, Los Gatos
© 2012 GP aka JSW
