Nude Descending A Staircase by X. J. Kennedy

'As in painting, so is poetry...' ~ Horace

Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912, Oil on Canvas, Marcel Duchamp, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Nude Descending a Staircase


Toe upon toe, a snowing flesh,
A gold of lemon, root and rind,
She sifts in sunlight down the stairs
With nothing on. Nor on her mind.


We spy beneath the banister
A constant thresh of thigh on thigh--
Her lips imprint the swinging air
That parts to let her parts go by.


One-woman waterall, she wears
Her slow descent like a long cape
And pausing, on the final stair
Collects her motions into shape.

~ X. J. Kennedy

Quote by Marcel Duchamp

"I have forced myself to contradict myself in order to avoid conforming to my own taste." ~ Marcel Duchamp

Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912, Oil on Canvas, Marcel Duchamp, Philadelphia Museum of Art

And so we should!  Unless we question, examine, debate, and contradict our own beliefs, ideas, thoughts, and patterns we never grow.