by Duke, Renee
Renée sketched and painted throughout her life. She had one-man shows in Paris, Boston, Caracas and Los Angeles. In Paris, she earned the equivalent of a Masters in Fine Arts at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts during France’s violent and creative explosion known as the Revolution of ’68. Renée Duke published poetry in the anthologies “Golden Horses” and “Chaos”; and in the California State Poetry Society Quarterly.
After her divorce in 1968, Renée then lived in Copenhagen and Los Angeles as a single mother while she trained as an expert Scientology practitioner, a vocation she pursued with dedication until the day she died. She is fondly remembered by thousands from all walks of life whom she helped personally as a life counselor and case supervisor.
(The following is a striking poem written by Renée Duke in the 1970s that we have included as bonus material.)
Mary Queen of Scots
1)
Well James
You and the white palfrey.
I rode it as you wished
With the sweet smell of spring
Swelling within me
And dressed in white I passed
Under the blackness of the preacher's window
He saw winter and brought it soon
And cursed me because I could ride as white as a white palfrey
When he wanted me black as sin.
2)
Ride with me
Once more over the moors
Wild swinging hair, I spit it out of my eyes
As the black velvet tears from me
Flattens against the wet flanks of
My panting horse
Gasping the sea sprayed air
And crushed heather under lowering sky
One, no two, harbingers of our own doom.
3)
The emerald hangs
Glowing dark, red inside
Close to my skin
My pride.
4)
Wait
do not blow like a sudden snow
On my lifted face
And melt
Before I can turn to snow as well
And melt with you.
5)
And should I see that solitude
Weighs heavy on my
Reluctant being,
I shall reach for it
Love being with my self
To love you more.
Renée Duke
From Golden Horses: Poetry for a New Civilization
Admiral Books, 1976
Pictures
* * *
[1] French cigarettes
[2] Harvard and Radcliffe have always had an intermingled past, leading to the merger of the institutions in the 70s. During World War II, young women going to Radcliffe could attend Harvard classes.
[3] A famous Vassar tradition where a group of sophomore women to carry a 150-foot chain of daisies and laurel, the “Daisy Chain”, at Commencement
[4] Operation Bootstrap was the name given to the major industrialization efforts in Puerto Rico in the mid-twentieth century.
[5] “Ladies of the Evening”
[6] Ortega y Gasset-Spanish philosopher and essayist
[7] cada-every
[8] Pariente–relative. In real life, Renée Duke’s ancestry had a heavy dose of blue-blood Spanish. Her mother was Dolores Carrillo de Albornoz, and her great-grandfather was Miguel de Aldama, a famed Cuban reformer, revolutionary and one of that country's wealthiest landowners. Miguel's lands were lost in the 1860s as a result of a failed attempt to revolt against the Spanish colonial government and join Cuba with the United States, leading to the family fleeing to New York. The Carrillo de Albornoz side was an old Spanish noble family, which more recently included Blanca de Aragón y Carrillo de Albornoz – the Countess of Mora and mother of Queen Fabiola of Belgium.
[9] Pampas–grassy plains
[10] Edgie–A real-life reference to a Cuban cousin, Edgar Carrillo de Albornoz, who helped Castro.
[11] A Doll’s House–a nineteenth-century play by Henrik Ibsen critical of conventional marriage norms.
[12] fronton– a court used for playing ja alai, a game somewhat similar to racquetball or squash.
[13] Cara–Dear
[14] Marthe Richard, a Paris councilwoman and herself a former prostitute who worked tirelessly to shut down Parisian brothels.
[15] quai–riverbank
[16] Plastiques-bombs
[17] Thorstein Bunde Veblen, an American economist and sociologist. The reference is from his best-known work, The Theory of the Social Class.
[18] Cáustica-caustic
[19] From The Lady’s Not for Burning, a play by Christopher Fry. “I am all out at the eyes” refers to dialog by the character, Alison, who comes in from the bright sunlight outside and can’t see clearly. “I've an April blindness” is a possible metaphor for the character’s symbolic position in life as a young woman in the “spring” of her life and still somewhat innocent.
[20] Cracher-spit
[21] Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, the French novelist who lived in the Palais-Royal
[22] Maison et Jardin–House and Garden
[23] Alexander Calder, an American sculptor and artist most known for his abstract sculptures.
[24] Atelier- workshop
[25] tu–“you”–used informally with friends and family in French (vs. the formal “vous”).
[26] Roger Chastel, the chef d’atelier (head of the studio) at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, the preeminent art college in Paris.
[27] Tais-toi–be quiet
[28] Eh, bien, merde! Espèece de con, tais-toi, toi mêeme!-Well, shit! You jerk, shut up yourself!
[29] A reference to André Malraux, a French politician who ordered the blackened stones of notable Parisian buildings cleaned to reveal the natural stone underneath.
[30] Charbon-coal
[31] Käthe Kollwitz, a female German artist, known for deeply poignant depictions of the human condition.
[32] Mon pauvre con-Poor idiot.
[33] Elle est conasse-She’s an idiot.
[34] Mais, Madame!–But, Madame!
[35] Piranesi-(1720–1778) an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric “prisons” [Wikipedia]
[36] Senlis–a town outside of Paris.
[37] Javel water, a disinfectant and cleaning agent.
[38] Craquelin- sugarbread
[39] mannekin pis–a famous statue in Brussels of a boy peeing
