Robert Elliott

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Door Metaphors in Giorgio de Chirico's Metaphysical Art

"Revelation is something that suddenly appears to the artist, as if a curtain has been drawn aside, or a door opened."
(Giorgio de Chirico, Some Perspectives on My Art, 1935)

"The door towards the metaphysical world does not open but rarely." (Giorgio de Chirico, Mister Dudron, 1939)

Door Metaphors

By Robert Elliott

For Louisa and Holger, May 16, 1987

Part 1: Five Haiku Doors

1. Old door, tree grows quarter century, more, blocking its way, Cut down tree - where will it open to?
2. Marriage, always the same door With three movements: Leaving Crossing Entering
3. As you go out, Dry twig cracks underfoot, Startling unexpected tears.
4. Invisible place, half-way through Ancient gate. You pause - What happens next?
5. As we watch, Unseen hands press the door open, You enter. The play begins. Did you think it could start without you?

Part 2: The Surrealistic Door

We trembled towards the door, which scintillated red-blue, red-blue, red-blue through the mist. Our teeth chattered from cold, and fear. We had not expected to feel this way, before dawn, waiting, that morning.

Worries sleeted down on us, like ten million needles, dancing on the head of an angel. Anxieties tugged at us, like children just about to start whining. Fears chilled us deep as we huddled, unready for the opening, too late to stay in the familiar territory we knew.

Red-blue, red-blue blurring after-images moving beyond vision. The door hung in mid-air, like a migraine scotoma burning at the center of our stare.

Sometime later, blue-red became purple, and bright violet light blinded us as the door opened. A small boy in a night shirt appeared in silohuette, and we stumbled through.

Part 3: The Purple Door

One morning Harold got out of bed, picked up his purple crayon, and decided to go to your wedding.

The first thing he needed to do was to draw a door. Next, he drew a door knob and used it to open the door. Then he went outside and drew a line all the way across for the horizon.

Looking out across the horizon, Harold know it was too far to walk. So he drew an airplane with two wings, two wheels, and two seats, one with a steering wheel and one without.

Since Harold did not know how to fly, he drew a pilot, being careful to add the pilot's cap. Next he drew another line across to make a runway for the airplane. Then off they went, flying up in the air.

As they flew along, Harold reached out and drew some fluffy clouds to make the sky look more interesting. He also drew a friendly sun and two middle-sized birds.

After a while, Harold got tired of flying and decided that he was almost there. As the airplane flew over, he drew two long lines for the runway, and the pilot landed them safely.

Harold was glad to be on the ground again. He drew a hill for himself to walk over. But at the top of the hill, he drew a big, fancy door.

Harold opened the door. You two, and everyone else, came through the door.

He was just in time for the wedding. © 2004 Robert Elliott (http://murraycreek.net/robert/louisa.htm, July 4, 2004)

"I am not a Migraine sufferer myself, but rather a clinical psychologist who is interested in the migraine phenomenon and has worked with clients with this experience. The second section of the poem bears mostly directly on the migraine experience, and was also meant to capture the stress and emotional pain of one's own wedding while at the same time bridging to the playful last section, which refers very directly to a well-loved, classic American children's picture book, Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson (New York: Harper Collins, 1955). Another source for this poem is the anthropologist Arnold van Gennep's work, The Rites of Passage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1908/1960) which analyzes cultural rituals such as weddings using the door metaphor ('liminality')." (Email to Klaus Podoll, July 5, 2004)

Author: Klaus Podoll
Last modification of this page: Wed. July 14, 2004

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