Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Porte Rouge



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:

Lucy said...

Oh, I love how vivid you went here in this poem! What a scene.

Helen said...

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!!!

JadeLi said...

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?

Poetry for Healing said...

This was so cool! It reminded me of The Woody Allen movie, Midnight In Paris. Your photography is stunning Glenn ☺️

robkistner said...

Really killer bro! Red doors are like magnets to me! Beautiful job giving us peek inside those red doors!

Dwight L. Roth said...

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!

K.Hartless said...

Gorgeous photography and this poem, vibrant and definitely impossible to miss. Thank you for sharing your art with us.

Selma Martin said...

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!

Ingrid said...

I love the scene and the era you conjoured up here Glenn, befitting of the Rue Pigalle. I can almost hear Edith Piaf singing...

Sanaa Rizvi said...

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! πŸ’πŸ’

brudberg said...

I think, today some of the forbidden lures of Monmartre has been gentrified, but I'm sure there are still red doors there.

Kerfe said...

It definitely resembles a portal, caught so beautifully in your words.

Sunra Rainz said...

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 :-)

calmkate said...

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!

Merril D. Smith said...

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.