"Don't Let That Horse Eat That Violin"

One of our favorites by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Marc Chagall's "The Horse with Violin in Mouth"

Don’t let that horse
                        eat that violin 

   cried Chagall’s mother

                                But he 
                      kept right on
                                painting 

And became famous

And kept on painting
                        The Horse With Violin In Mouth

The Poet Reading

And when he finally finished it 
he jumped up upon the horse
                                and rode away 
         waving the violin

And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across

And there were no strings 
                                attached 

from Coney Island of the Mind, New Directions, 1958

painters and poets
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