He nevertheless produced backdated “self-forgeries” both to profit from his earlier success, and as an act of revenge—retribution for the critical preference for his early work.
This is a post for the dVerse prompt on artist Giorgio de Chirico.
Casting Hollow Precipices (click to read the poem read)
Querulous forming bodies gesticulating
specious melancholy turns flickering ivy wilting bowers
casting hollow precipices of venial autophagy
jumping lascivious shelters along tantalizing downspouts
while frivolity and hope cavort
illuminated by broken serrated wine gardens
licking poisonous frills up vestments
of nouns arborous consuming limitless
Prussian blue snuffers frothing magnanimity
sliding deconstructed zoological gathers
while populating quips radiating aspect ratios
lined parallax of jinxes or bemoaning victorious
tumbled traits unconscious on smothered nauseous florid grandiosity
bailing sensitive assurances with galloping crowns gilded
hampering flotillas of bawdy helium didactic formal art perched
dying in vitriolic plumes of xeric tomes unending
Chromapoetica 
Another wild orgy of verbal decadence, Anna, but unlike a drunken bacchanal of the flesh, here I learn and see so much intricacy and relation. This man had a fascinating story. I’m sure you could write all kinds of things both from what he produced and what he didn’t. loving an enigma and being an enigma, both. Part of the reason i chose to go with tongue in cheek in my offering was that line you quoted above–about being happy to go back and paint in his old more lucrative style, yet still think of it as self-forgery. Such layers, with a very xeric humor packed in between like lavender in old lacy garments. Your use of autophagy here is just skewering. I also like the prussian blue snuffers, which make me think of blue glass brandy snifters full of intoxicating thoughts–and words. Very enjoyable piece.
Ah, you’ve made me so happy with the autophagy reference. Thanks again for walking on the wild side with your open mind, keen observations, and encouragement. Your acknowledgment of the xeric humor I will cherish. See, no explaining, that’s growth.
I’am so amazed with what you all come up with.I totally loved this.
Thank you for your encouraging comment!
I get the sense here of de Chirico being more blank than Andy Warhol in a no-win battle between his selves and their place in society, buoyed – or so he thought – by a classical body, in fact dead and bloated.
Either that or I need to look up all those words again….
(Laughing) no need to go back to the book it’s open to the reader’s interpretation. Thanks again for hosting! I’m still getting through entries and enjoying the variety of responses.
I will have to take some more time to digest this one, but there were some really cool images and phrases here 🙂
Thanks for reading and commenting, I’m glad you found something to chew on here :).
the third and fourth stansa in particular draw me in…you sure make the words danceon or off the page..how intriguing his change and then to do self forgeries…profit and revenge…this guy was quite the interesting fellow…licking poisonous frills up vestments…fascinating….
and the quote you just left at my place is completely awesome…thanks for tagging it on there…much to ponder….
I loved his book, The Crooked Timber of Humanity; I’m so happy you found food for thought.
Though your flow feels very similar to his… I need a bit of a fresh mind to take all the layers in. Shall return for another look tomorrow. Well played. Interesting.
Thank you for your observation, dialogue with another artist is always a dance between imbuing enough of their voice and style within my own. I’ve certainly had painted dialogues with other painters but it’s interesting to mix media so to speak and combine painting and poetry.
just listened to you read your poem…awesome anna… i think this experimental style fits perfectly with the prompt and he’s such an interesting character – love how you “dived” into parts of his life and personality with your writing (even though…it was a bit challenge for me to read with english being my second language…so hope i got it right…smiles)
Claudia, you have my utmost respect for the effort, I speak a sliver of German from performing various songs in it (same with Italian, Spanish, and French). Always wonderful to have you stop by and comment! I loved your post.
Ok. stop the clocks. My madulla oblangata has just heamoraged a rainbow of Cerebral Fluid… (that sounds oddly lascivious…poetically of course)… hell – this rocked my world.
As some body who can only weep over words and who actually runs around the garden exhalting the power and transcendent nature of art at any given moment of inspiration – i look forward to reading your work… but this wowed me more than ever…. and then…..as i am picking bits of skull off the back of my space age, scarf adorned, super duper writing chair… I notice a comment about listening to you read the poem…I click a few buttons…and then listen to you read….My brain actually fell out… i already had a favourite stanza and when you hit it i gushed more CF.
A M A Z I N G.
(im just off to get stanza 3 tatooed at the base of my spine, 2 inches beneath the feet of Jesus Lol)
Seriously loved this as you can tell – im a fan – and i can only echo back the words and sentiment you placed on my site.
As someone who has read or should that be fought my way through the works of Kant, Hegel etc
Iam used to word power play and you are fearless. Schopenhauer and Nietszche where poets though and stretched vocab with beauty and authenticity in the quest to promote expansive understanding in the minds of their readers – authenticity is the key x 10. If you fake your dead. Also some words sit idle in dictionaries and need to be illuminated and shared.
Hearing you actually read the words aloud only confirms the genuine nature of your endeavor.
l’authenticité est la clé à tout l’art de choses.
Oh, how I remember Nietzsche sent a woman running out of our ethics class. Another woman responded with hedonism as the answer. I thought oh, now here’s someone with something to say. Here’s an intellectual argument worth engaging. Then again my response to philosophy has always been ooooh, let’s take this out of the box and play with it not run for your life :). I have a soft spot in my heart for Kant that man, if you lived in Königsberg you could set your clock by he was so structured in his routine and never travelled (the opposite of my life so far).
I laughed and had fits of glee reading your comment. “As someone who runs around the garden exalting the power and transcendent nature of art at any given moment of inspiration” was a lovely visual. The tattoo hilarious and I’m still glowing from the comment. I have nothing as clever to reply with. Usually I get yelled at, or kicked out of writing groups, or simply given the wilting look in response to my ‘art’. Steven Fry has a wonderful bit called Don’t Mind Your Language here: http://www.stephenfry.com/2008/11/04/dont-mind-your-language%e2%80%a6/
“Words, it seems belong to other people, anyone who expresses themselves with originality, delight and verbal freshness is more likely to be mocked, distrusted or disliked than welcomed. The free and happy use of words appears to be considered elitist or pretentious.” I am of the free and happy use of words ilk as you may have noticed!
“But above all let there be pleasure. Let there be textural delight, let there be silken words and flinty words and sodden speeches and soaking speeches and crackling utterance and utterance that quivers and wobbles like rennet. Let there be rapid firecracker phrases and language that oozes like a lake of lava. Words are your birthright. Unlike music, painting, dance and raffia work, you don’t have to be taught any part of language or buy any equipment to use it, all the power of it was in you from the moment the head of daddy’s little wiggler fused with the wall of mummy’s little bubble. So if you’ve got it, use it. Don’t be afraid of it, don’t believe it belongs to anyone else, don’t let anyone bully you into believing that there are rules and secrets of grammar and verbal deployment that you are not privy to. Don’t be humiliated by dinosaurs into thinking yourself inferior because you can’t spell broccoli or moccasins. Just let the words fly from your lips and your pen. Give them rhythm and depth and height and silliness. Give them filth and form and noble stupidity. Words are free and all words, light and frothy, firm and sculpted as they may be, bear the history of their passage from lip to lip over thousands of years. How they feel to us now tells us whole stories of our ancestors.”
Also, if it really was your medulla oblongata I hope you got yourself to the hospital, damage to that part of the brain is generally fatal.
Hi Anna,
After posting my comment here earlier i realised i had to come out – i was chucking myself about the web with somebody elses face/name attatched and it felt weird (fuller explenation on my blog).
I have always been 100% myself in writing so its just a wrapping alteration…
I share many similarities with Kant… i Live on the coast of the English Channel in the Port of Dover and every day without fail you can set your watch as i walk the white cliffs and seafront. The sea is so important for me as it shows me how small i am in the grand scheme of things,,, Much to my daily annoyance,,,i am not the centre of the universe!
Yours revealingly
Arron
Thank you for the explanation, especially your comment on your blog: “My bio is 100% real and I have never been anything other than honest in my correspondence.” I assumed that with a tagline Infinite Jester that it was unlikely you shared T.S. Eliot’s name but life is sometimes stranger than fiction. My parents changed my name at the hospital because they were angry with the person they were going to name me after. My mother didn’t think through the name Anna Graham. My English teachers always got a kick out of it at the beginning of the year and used it in their lesson on homonyms.
Per you being the center of the universe, I find that, for myself, that’s a great relief. If I were the center of the universe I’d have some explaining to do. It’s an honor to meet you again, whatever your wrapping. By the way I am not Technicolored but I’m sure you knew that :).
Ha Ha i gathered as much smiles.
My mum was an Elvis nut and she chucked an extra R in – at least she hit the middle name -Elvis may have been a bit much – she also followed Ziggy stardust on tour, so i really did get lucky.
Thanks for excepting the id thing – i new it may be a risk as people may think im dishonest – but i trusted in the intelligence of the people i have met. I thought it had to be now or never and it looks as though the people who count are cool so hey ;-}
A whirlwind of a write, taking in history, biography, body of work and more. I do admit, the dictionary proved helpful! 😉 Loved it, Anna…but that’s something I’ve come to expect
No shame in that I love my dictionary! Thank you ever so much for stopping by and putting a giant smile on my face!
Your abstract expressionist leanings and your love of and choice of “delicious” words just lend themselves to this prompt, Anna. I laughed aloud at your comment on my blog in reference to your own surrealist experiences.
Thanks Victoria, I loved your playful approach to the prompt and always glad to get a laugh! So glad you came by!
Each stanza seemed like a story unto itself, a bit avant garde, I like it!
Thank you, I was going for avant garde so it’s good I at least got the arrow on the target :).
Loved the last stanza..
Nice read !!
Thank you, as always, I appreciate your comments!
Powerhouse play with ideas and words
Thank you, I enjoyed your take on his work as well.
I was inspired by his paintings and now by your words. Your gift of creating poetry with words I never knew is astonishing.
Thank you for your beautiful compliment and your continued readership.
Anna, your use of language is mesmerizing. An impressive write. You can use complex words and a beautiful flow.
Pamela
” and keep a beautiful flow”
the final line is really impressive, a great ending.
Thanks! Nice to see you again, I look forward to reading what you’ve been writing.