Narcissus, Photographer by Erica Jong

Erica Jong 1942-

Narcissus, Photographer

“…a frozen memory, like any photo,
where nothing is missing, not even,
and especially, nothingness…”
— Julio Cortázar, “Blow Up”

Mirror-mad,
he photographed reflections:
sunstorms in puddles,
cities in canals,

double portraits framed
in sunglasses,
the fat phantoms who dance
on the flanks of cars.

Nothing caught his eye
unless it bent
or glistered
over something else.

He trapped clouds in bottles
the way kids
trap grasshoppers.
Then one misty day

he was stopped
by the windshield.
Behind him,
an avenue of trees,

before him,
the mirror of that scene.
He seemed to enter
what, in fact, he left

Erica Jong
Born: 26 March 1942, New York, USA
Nationality: American

Jong is a novelist, satirist, and poet particularly known for her novel “Fear of Flying” (1973). The book was famously controversial for its attitudes on female sexuality and became prominent in the development of second-wave feminism