Promising member
Joined: Apr 15, 2007
Posts: 23
Location: George Town Tasmania
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ALL IN ONE GO
Picasso, or perhaps it was one of his close friends, once said that his energy, the energy he put into a painting, is all transferred into it "in one go." Much of painting, to Picasso, was a breaking down and a remaking of something as he attempted to transform it. What was true of Picasso and his painting, as expressed here, is also true of the construction of my poetry, except for the long epic poem I am working on where the energy is spread out over many years. If I consider the total oeuvre of my poetry and prose output as one long poem, then the energy was not put out "in one go." There were many goes, over many years, as I made and remade things to my satisfaction and dissatisfaction, to and with my pleasure and my anxieties, tranforming my world and leaving it the same.
The tradition of self-portraiture in painting is also mirrored in my writing as a part of the tradition of autobiography. Self-portraiture begins with Albrecht Durer in 1493 and autobiography with St. Augustine in 426 A.D.
-Ron Price with thanks to ABC TV, "Magic, Sex and Death: Part One on Picasso," 9 June 2002, 3:35-4:30 pm. 
You can't put it all down.
The essence is never conveyable
and the corpus of self-portraits
always rests uncomfortably
on the inner land of unreality.1
I construct my self-portaits
somewhat like an artist
with the real me somewhere
behind the words,
behind that likeness
which tells only some
of the psyche
and the self-worth.
The calculation, choices
and manipulation
are all part of construction
and it is far beyond
my corporeal vessel,
some scrutinized self,
some fashioned being
its infinite variety of meanings,
its statement of self-analysis.
There is richness and ambiguity here
amidst the fluctuating fortunes of life,
the complexities and the multitudinous
renditions of my days.2
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1 A Sufi idea of 'the inner land of unreality compared to Revealed Truth' referred to by Baha'u'llah in Seven Valleys, USA, 1952, p.28.
2 With thanks to Steven Platzman in his introduction to Cezanne: The Self-Portraits.
10 June 2002
Revised For Todays Woman
Internet Site: 24/7/07
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married for 41 years, a teacher for 35 years and a BahaŽi for 48 years. |
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