image from pinterest.com
Porte Rouge
“The imposing red door towered over me. It had
no handles, only opening from the inside.”
--Glenn Buttkus.
In the Quarter Pigalle
there are red doors aplenty,
in the sex shops, Adult Follies.
titty-bars and steaming cat houses.
American GI’s, during WWII dubbed
it “Pig Alley”, and they hung out there
in lustful battalions. The Moulin
Rouge is there, with no less
than a dozen red doors,
and the Divan du Monde.
Josephine Baker built am nightclub there.
Toulouse Lautrec had a studio there,
which makes me think
of Jose Ferrer playing him
in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge,
constantly on his knees
to approximate Lautrec’s stature;
red swollen knees behind
lacquered red doors.
The Grand Guignol theatre was there.
Van Gogh and Picasso,
Hemingway and Sartre
lived there.
This is the end stop
for the public bus line.,
the Montmartrobus.
So if you have a thing
for red doors
and French kisses,
wanting a space port
for the rocket in your pocket,,
wanting to see “Paris by Night”,
come to the Place Pigalle.
Glenn Buttkus
Minimalism
Posted over at d'Verse Poet's Pub
15 comments:
Oh, I love how vivid you went here in this poem! What a scene.
I made it as far as The Tower, Montmartre and the Louvre .... look what I missed! Seriously, your minimalist art is stunning, as is your poem!!!
All I can think right now is Truffles in Ruffles, Truffles in Ruffles... I just watched Ken Burns' series on Hemingway and they covered a lot of his time in Paris and France generally. They never mentioned this part of town... I wonder if Buk ever made it over there for a visit?
This was so cool! It reminded me of The Woody Allen movie, Midnight In Paris. Your photography is stunning Glenn ☺️
Really killer bro! Red doors are like magnets to me! Beautiful job giving us peek inside those red doors!
Sounds like you and Rob had the same idea about this door. You could combine the two poems into a great collaboration. Well done Glenn. Sanaa had an interesting prompt with your great photos!
Gorgeous photography and this poem, vibrant and definitely impossible to miss. Thank you for sharing your art with us.
Thanks so much for allowing us to use your photographs over a dVerse this week. They are all lovely, but I settled on the tomato plant that gave rise to a memory of when I was allergic to the love apple-- tomatl-- as it was called in Mesoamerica. Anyway, thanks so much for this. You rock!
I love the scene and the era you conjoured up here Glenn, befitting of the Rue Pigalle. I can almost hear Edith Piaf singing...
This is absolutely sensational, Glenn! I especially like the reference to "The Moulin Rouge is there, with no less than a dozen red doors,and the Divan du Monde,".. it reminded me of the 2001 movie starring Nicole Kidman which I saw a few years ago! Thank you so much for writing to the prompt, and for allowing us to write inspired by your photos! Needless to say, the prompt is a huge success! 💝💝
I think, today some of the forbidden lures of Monmartre has been gentrified, but I'm sure there are still red doors there.
It definitely resembles a portal, caught so beautifully in your words.
I have been there and you describe it so well! It still has that atmosphere that it is historically and still notorious for. I love its depiction in Toulouse Lautrec's paintings. Great write :-)
talk about name dropping
great raunchy era to invoke
what red doors might provoke
thanks for introducing me to a name and community for what I've been doing for ages, much appreciated!
I love your vivid description of the place and era--and all that red doors might signify.
Your mention of the old movie Moulin Rouge makes me remember an old family memory.
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