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Sep 6, 2021
"I would like to paint the way a bird sings.
" --Claude Monet
Monet Refuses the Operation
"Doctor, you say there are no haloes
around the streetlights in Paris
and what I see is an aberration
caused by old age, an affliction.
I tell you it has taken me all my life
to arrive at the vision of gas lamps as angels,
to soften and blur and finally banish
the edges you regret I don't see..."
In this exquisite poem, Lisel Mueller lyrically explores Monet's real-life refusal to undergo cataract surgery.