as if we were all immortal

There is a room in Paris filled with the lady and unicorn tapestries.  I thought about it the other day when I came across an old journal entry.    I’m sorry that now I’ve misplaced those exact words, but maybe I can get the essence here.  

The famous unicorn tapestries are in The Musee de Cluny, a haven within the busy centre of Paris.  Last year when I visited Paris with our middle daughter, we looked in the gift store of this museum for two matching pillows, each with a unicorn done in needlepoint for her twin toddlers.

I took a few photos of the tapestries and am sharing them here.  The now lost journal entry was about hope and the human spirit and how the handmade object is an expression of resilliance.    

These tapestries are so old, yet there is something forever young about them.  

as if we were all immortal in some way

ourselves enormous

in the plumed fields of light are the shapely deeds of our flesh

what grandeur

                 (words by Al Purdy, Canadian poet)

Click this link to view Rebecca Mezoff's visit to the Cluny museum in 2019.  She describes and gives images of each of the tapestries.   

unfolding in the trees not thinking

A vertical piece, like a tower.

Like something from another century.

with stairways that go up to the attic

where there is a fairy window

where there is a daydream.

where there is poetry

where there are no storms

not really

where we stop reading

where we stop thinking

where we recognize 

yet continue upwards

past the round window 

that doesn't open

towards the ceiling

so high 

it's a narrow space

like I said, it's a tower

it's intimate, close and soft

and dreamy

the round window watches 

it sees your memory

it views your dream 

oh your serene face

I know it's a cover up

I know it's a blanket

I know you are alone