To begin with, I am too old.
At fourteen, I suppose I could
have been, but it was too late:
Edgar Degas was already dead,
I had poetry and rock music in my head,
and I wasn’t made of wax or bronze.
In adult years, I found her
nor far from here,
at the Sainsbury Centre, Norwich.
I was close enough to touch
her tutu. I was very much
impressed (Degas was, after all)
an impressionist. And then I discovered
he had sculptured her uncovered –
exhibited nude in Copenhagen –
and there is more than one:
two plasters, forty-nine waxes and ten in bronze,
while there is only, uniquely, me.
Kim M. Russell, 7th April 2025
(also known as ‘Little Dancer Aged Fourteen)
by Edgar Degas, Sainbury Centre, Norwich
It’s the seventh day of this year’s NaPoWriMo, where today’s daily resource is the Canadian Museum of History, where one can take a virtual tour or enjoy several online exhibitions, including one of Inuit prints from Cape Dorset.
The optional prompt takes us back a couple of days to Frank O’Hara’s poem, in which he explained why he was not a painter, and then brings us back to a poem by Jane Yeh, ‘Why I Am Not a Sculpture’, in which she both “compares herself to a sculpture and uses a series of rather silly and elaborate similes, along with references to dubious historical ‘facts’”. Our challenge is to “write a similar kind of self-portrait poem, in which you explain why you are not a particular piece of art (a symphony, a figurine, a ballet, a sonnet), use at least one outlandish comparison, and a strange (and maybe not actually real) fact.”
writing in north norfolk 
Degas couldn’t stop at one—he was a perfectionist ¿mayhaps? And we’re better off indeed to have just one Kim. Your logic is brilliant. I love your poem. Thanks for sharing. Xo, selma
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Thank you, Selma! xox It was the plaster casts that made it easier to make more bronzes.
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lovely Kim. A subtle yet great expression of your uniqueness
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Thank you, Eric.
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Beautifully written, Kim. Much better to be alive and comfortable in your own skin than another’s, bronze or flesh!
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Thank you, Dora!
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Yes, I’m glad we have the unique Kim. But this little dancer is very appealing. (Particularly to Degas, it seems.) I like the way the poem moves through various stages of your relationship with her, through Degas himself, to loop back to you.
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Thank you very much, Rosemary.
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Sculpting is a fine art, but the finished work is a moment in time, whereas flesh and blood has more to say, more to do, glad have you KIm.
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Cheers Paul.
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My pleasure Kim 🙂
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I love that statue and all its replicas. Well done, Kim!
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Thank you, Romana!
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I always wanted to be a ballerina, but I had stainless steel rods instead of rubber bands for legs.
And you are uniquely you, Kim!
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Thanks Nolcha!
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I could have the privilege to sketch this statue in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris a while ago. It was a great experience.
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