This is linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night http://dversepoets.com/2012/04/03/open-link-night-week-38/
Category: Philosophy
If you’ve arrived here looking for my dVerse Poets Pub poem for Open Link Night it can be found here http://kshawnedgar.wordpress.com/2012/03/26/legacy-of-ashes-a-training-manual/ at Carbon Noise Poetry, a collaborative blog I contribute to from time to time. Also, I am not the administrator of the site so your comments may take longer to appear than usual. Thank you for your patience.
Alice Neel (c) 1980 Self Portrait National Portrait Gallery
For Alice Neel 1900-1984
(all quotes are hers except where otherwise indicated)
You passed the civil service exam
to support your parents at a time
when women didn’t work
going to night school in painting
determined to be an artist
to reach escape velocity
Lure of the wealthy Cuban artist
his well-mannered promises:
joys of marriage,
intellectual circles, artists, literati,
philosophical vistas all called to you
before the Great Depression converged
the country’s agony paralleled your own
Santillana died, Isabetta removed from your care
prescribed a year in the sanatorium on suicide watch
your daughters lingered in every subsequent interaction
whispered themes of loss at each sitting
made you cry in front of aquariums
even as an old woman standing in the dark
you claimed it intimated your life
Really seeing into the other, each model’s
psyche revealed in a less static form
portraiture never capturing only a moment
but the continuous life of something greater
when they inducted you he said:
‘she probes courageously, almost violently’*
and called yours a difficult art to bear
you believed in the veracity of humanism
sometimes when they left
you ceased to exist, lost somewhere in them
Your sons sought succor in opposing ideologies
unable to face the consequences of bohemian chaos
Richard beaten, unprotected, loved you
Hartley proclaimed his loyalty to you
each caught in ‘blocks of ice’
consumed by corporations in the rise of capitalist fervor
Beautiful, wounded Isabetta
walks out to the seawall
takes the sleeping pills
was it that you were never there?
Feminist icon, they never felt you acculturated to the movement
outrageous behavior claimed psychic space for women
‘I never just paint my pussy; I think that’s absurd,
I mean, to do your pussy over and over, how monotonous.’
a collective gasp as you asserted there’s no difference
between paintings made by either sex
Until the retrospective at the Whitney, validated by the establishment,
‘I always felt…I didn’t have the right to paint.’
there were children to care for, men to uplift
you painted ‘without ingratiation,
without pretty nuances of color and drawing,
but with great validity.’* now the Academy approves
a lifetime membership but you’re already dying of cancer
Precociously out of your time
longing to be a great artist
for recognition from a society
that believed you should be bounded by conformity
all those contradictions, complexity, and sacrifice
your perseverance carried a high price
‘When you’re an artist you’re searching for freedom,
you’re never going to find it
because there isn’t any freedom.
Art could be called the search.’
*From the American Academy of Arts and Letters induction speech
Connected to the Open Link Night prompt at dVerse Poets Pub here: http://dversepoets.com/2012/03/20/openlinknight-week-36/ please link up and read some world class poetry.
For Iris Murdoch
‘All art is a struggle to be,
in a particular sort of way, virtuous.’
she’s talking with that awful haircut
only ameliorated by a shy smile
thoughts arrive in her head
like a bull she charges at them
a philosophy tutor at Oxford
always ready to make an argument
It’s wonderful to see her so I know
we are very different in that way
thoughts arrive in my mind
blossoming into interconnecting maps
wild tendrils of expanding ideas,
my motivation is creative imagination
She’s dissecting myriad ways
that art and philosophy diverge:
mystification versus clarification
claiming art’s deep purpose is to impose form;
turn life’s rubble into something admirable
bolstering our shaky foundations
Philosophy is repetitive
a critical analysis of presuppositions,
an unnatural game
conceptual structure and significance
argument not self-expression
forceful, persuasive, analytic, and clear
Art, being mimetic, is natural,
everyone loves to be told a story
the use of creativity helps it be,
in a special way, true
mystic underpinning of mundane experience
intimate, sculpting, suggestive, and provoking
Fantasy’s a destructive menace,
suffocating intimacy with the reader
philosophy may damage art too,
obscuring sublimity and beauty
and so we come to understand:
to create great art
we leave room for imaginative space
A wilderness where psychology intersects story,
myth infringes on structure,
where the entirety of existence
skims the border of the embodied and
our being encounters transformation
Linked to dVerse Open Link Night http://dversepoets.com/2012/03/13/openlinknight-week-35/
‘brought into being by nothing other than the look’*
using poetry to stitch the seams, painting them with vitreous enamel
burnishing golden orbs of beauty, enhancing the visual field
to make the world seem habitable
inherently empathetic to human existence
when does the illusion, this disembodied utterance,
enter firmly into the realm of futility?
philosophical argument merely hints at a promise of liberty
floating upon the surface of psychological experience
a convincing conundrum that won’t unlock
inner barriers to designing boundaries of self-definition
societal viewing provides ample opportunities
to manifest cognitive dissonance, reinforcing the brute
that omniscient spectator-god within the man
feminine artistry is required to remain comfortably incarcerated
chaos churns with near indomitable force
why fight when you are forever outnumbered?
control may simply be a part of the disease
disempowering internalization of the oppressor’s abuse
replaying his semiotic position as the maker of meaning
whom I know is never she, never me
called into existence through the male gaze, the internalized observer,
objectified and exploited by possession and protection
filming my every move in art house cinematic style
encircled in an ouroboros of scopophilia
blinded to feminist themes, it traps what’s possible
entangling these hands, bloodied with struggle
incapable now of creating and preserving identity
scraping molded forms to sharpen focus
no spiritual value arising from inherent worth
only sculpting my usefulness in a deterministic role
voyeur’s fantasy allays the weight of moral consequences
fixing upon the screen the sanctioned story
i am a dissociated, breathing pleasure toy, imaginary signifier,
an unintentional participant living in a heightened state of unreality
*Christian Metz, French film theorist
Linked to dVerse Poets Pub’s Open Link Night here: http://dversepoets.com/2012/01/31/open-link-night-week-29/. Please join us!
unshackling the joists of reality
déraciné slips a hypnopompic state
transports me to deepest fantasy
grenadine elixir hastens my fate
Polia’s vesica piscis forms the gate
reminiscent of Poliphili’s eros
an architectural treatise verbose
theory of linguistic anaphora
proportions mirroring grandest pithos
illustrating the incunabula
restless night devolves, mystic artistry
all defenses breached dragons lie in wait
global aphasia compounds mystery
declarations of love illuminate
witnessed in the temple we celebrate
disgorgement of erotic tempests close
sexual politics, habile pathos
right to expression passion’s nebula
vocalizing my abandoned logos
illustrating the incunabula
festal oblation, sensuality
jubilant gesticulations vibrate
blissful outcries of sexuality
my pleasure center forces activate
some yet imagined being inchoate
power to surreptitiously enclose
capturing my desire overdose
engaging a lustful hyperbola
accentuated fetishes repose
illustrating the incunabula
subsumed reason in a upturned cosmos
the dream mathematically jocose
its apt felicific parabola
etching these in fantastical lithos
illustrating the incunabula
Gay Reiser Cannon issued quite the challenge for today’s Form for All at dVerse Poets Pub on French Ballades http://dversepoets.com/2012/01/26/formforall-french-ballades-i/. Follow the link for an excellent article on syllable count, rhyme scheme, stanza length, and tone.
(c) 2010 Anna Montgomery
mindful inquiry processes mirroring
eros as an act of imagination
sounding an eternal song of bittersweet promises
our invitation to the sublime
delight is its kinetic drive
lack its animating catalyst
expressing desire in oracles and riddles
Aristophanes’ closest possible union*
existing at the edge of the actual and possible
a liminal being pines for embodiment
craving pomegranates and blue lotus blossoms
travelling arabesque corridors of self-awareness
we lovers define the boundaries
pictorial and phonetic glyphs
capturing thought in intimate arrangements
phonemes and diction engage wild twists of cognition
vocalized syllabary refined to acoustic components
sacred vibrations joined in fluid succession
our mouths formulate the symbols
breath conducts seductive influence
written pages the conductors, energy arcs distance
ornate signifiers, rugged paths trace emotion
bas-relief, each line a tactile sensation
memorized by the nuanced flourish of hands
semantic impertinences, Aristotle’s epiphora*
metaphors poured upon the surface of poetry, etching passageways
these epiphanies define our pilgrimage
encountering the nature of love
Notes:
Mnaomai: 1. To be mindful, to have in mind, to direct one’s attention to 2. To woo, court, be a suitor.
Aristophanes: No, obviously the soul of each is longing for something else which it cannot put into normal words but keeps trying to express in oracles and riddles. Suppose that, as the lovers lay together, Hephaistos should come and stand over them, tools in hand and ask ‘O human beings, what is it that you want of one another?’ And supposed they were nonplussed, so he put the question again: ‘Well is this what you crave, to be joined in the closest possible union with one another, so as not to leave one another by night and day?’
Aristotle’s epiphora: ‘To give names to nameless things by transference [metaphora] from things kindred or similar in appearance’ is how Aristotle describes the function of metaphor…There is in the mind a change or shift of distance, which Aristotle calls an epiphora, bringing two heterogeneous things close to reveal their kinship. The innovation of metaphor occurs in this shift of distance from far to near, and it is effected by imagination. – From Anne Carson’s magnificent book Eros The Bittersweet.
Linked to dVerse Poetics prompt hosted by the talented Claudia! Please join in the fun at http://dversepoets.com/2012/01/21/poetics-b-%c2%a6-o-%c2%a6-r-%c2%a6-d-%c2%a6-e-%c2%a6-r-%c2%a6-s/#comment-8475
Interactive Epistemology
Mathematical models
of conflict and cooperation
between intelligent, rational
decision-makers
as we encounter the sacred space
of the game board
playing field of love
Psychodrama dialogue with the invisible
as objects endowed with psychic energy
become our actors upon the stage
male/female qualities intertwining
an offering to fuel the imagination
activating emotionality
Wholeness, rules and freedom
define our actions
traversing nature and civilization
where the depths of the unpremeditated
private reactions to external constraints
aid us in exploring symbolic struggles
against death, elements,
individual doubt and weakness
A self-contained universe
full of divination and magic
Convex Sets
Before we engaged
in non-cooperative games
modeled to the finest detail
sequential perfect information systems
a theorist’s dream
In these cutthroat skirmishes
competition overtook us
algorithmic measurable motives
induced a sense of control
within a symmetrical pay-off matrix
all zero-sum outcomes
as someone always lost
Mixed Strategy
Your love engulfs
I experience the computational complexity
of trembling hand perfection
this move I didn’t intend to play
an initiation that surprises
Correlated equilibrium
in characteristic function form
these cooperative games
exist to create unity
There are imperfect information tradeoffs
we commit perlocutionary acts
knowing there’s no way to simplify,
say the meaning of the word (x)
has a definitive parameter
In a series of performative utterances
no constate sentences, no verified truth
yet imbued with illocutionary force,
with the potency of action
We proceed simultaneously
in asymmetric, non-zero-sum
combinatorial strategies
without any provable optimal theory
only our communication
assuring mutual satisfaction
as we form binding commitments
Despite the intricacies
logistics and uncertainties
I turn to you and say, ‘I promise’
(definitions and notes at the end of the post)
wind beats, tears tree limbs senselessly
awakens me at two
progressively earlier, as if getting a head start will make it worksecret self enters a prime neologism
(double edged word)
flashes of the road to Hāna
arriving alone on the black volcanic shore
25 foot waves threaten crisis
crepuscule floats atop the violence
enantiomorphic noctilucent clouds appear as hierograms
somnifacient, auriferous divine projections
cover letters must be written
(logical/sequential marches in the margins):
Dear Board of Directors: I am uniquely qualified to bring your organization into the next phase of its nonprofit lifecycle. With seven years of progressive experience as an administrator I’ve quadrupled the budget, secured more than a million dollars in support, collaborated with hundreds of organizations, partnered with corporate donors, provided measurable outcomes for vulnerable populations…
(dear reader, do you know anyone who needs an Executive Director?)
packing boxes! thoughts invade this sanctuary of art,
all my treasures will be (hidden)
polymythical fractious storylines colliding
synchrotron beamlines branch
as abstract futures smash up
i contemplate my tragic flaw
she reminds me i’m capable, intelligent, creative, functional, witty, lovely
believe the list! win fight perform wow charm hedge prove!
oh and they all say i’ve been through so much worse (this never helps)
kerfs mark raw silk, ripping
tactile encounters are disasters of percipient stratum
yet i was so open, orgasmic (blush)
tracing your words (thought artifacts)
undertow gains potency – i withstand the pelting rocks – deafening roar
poetry swirls, th e l i n e s w o n ’ t c o n n e c t
4………………3…………..2…….1
melodies disenfranchise
lingual possession thieved
corrugated smells intrude, demanding
thoughts dropped jagged edge
up
i’m an imperfect processor with selection bias
questing for an oracle of algorithms
deciphering code
delineating borders
i smile but lick my canine
press to feel solidity
the rage to master won’t rescue this poem
from the brink
of disintegration
pandect induces bradycardia – NO!
where is the intricate architecture?
you can’t build a civilization without infrastructure
life invades organically
intermingling traumas, visions, and vistas
(it is four in the morning)
tender phylogeny
an imposed or inherent order?
steel girders at wrong angles
concrete poured outside the mold
(WordPress keeps undoing my formatting,
stealing all the spaces!)
who needs self-conscious poetry?
reality stalks like a zoo panther
stuck, stuck travelling the loop
loop my loop
loop my loop
my terricolous vulnerability
(liminal space)
who comes every day to loop my loop?
to make me face Brutality Between the Lines
damn lines that don’t connect
i redraw with new colors, open ensō
what does it mean
(do you know what it means?)
my pocket atlas is written in symbols
metaphrastic selenography
buried under ethnolinguistic axioms
i’ve become a sojourner
within my own cultural schema
a foreigner at home
Notes/Definitions: neologism: 1. A new word, expression, or usage. 2. The creation or use of new words or senses. 3. Psychology a. The invention of new words regarded as a symptom of certain psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia. b. A word so invented. 4. TheologyA new doctrine or a new interpretation of scripture.; Hāna: is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County, Hawaii, United States. The population was 2,291 at the 2010 census. Hana is located at the eastern end of the island of Maui and is one of the most isolated communities in the state. It is reached mainly via the Hana Highway, a long, winding, 52 miles (84 km) long highway along Maui’s northern shore.; crepuscule: twilight; enantiomorph: 1. mirror image, form related to another as an object is to its image in a mirror. 2. either of a pair of crystals that are mirror images of each other, and are optically active. 3. (chemistry) A similar molecule or compound; an enantiomer.; noctilucent clouds: tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the “ragged-edge” of a much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight. They are made of crystals of water ice.; hierogram: sacred writing or a sacred character or symbol.; somnifacient: causing or inducing sleep.; auriferous: containing gold.; nonprofit lifecycles: 1. Grass Roots – Invention 2. Start-Up – Incubation 3. Adolescent – Growing 4. Mature – Sustainability 5. Stagnation & Renewal 6. Decline And Shut-Down (as conceptualized by Speakman Consulting Firm); polymythology: A combination of a number of stories in one narrative or dramatic work.; fractious: tending to be troublesome; synchronotron: a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator in which the magnetic field (to turn the particles so they circulate) and the electric field (to accelerate the particles) are carefully synchronised with the travelling particle beam.; tragic flaw: defect in hero’s character that causes downfall; kerf: a slit or notch made by a saw or cutting torch; percipient: 1: one that perceives 2: a person on whose mind a telepathic impulse or message is held to fall; stratum: 4. one of a series of layers, levels, or gradations in an ordered system <strataof thought>; disenfranchise: to deprive of a franchise, of a legal right, or of some privilege or immunity; selection bias: (2) selection of samples or studies by researchers to support a particular hypothesis.; algorithm: In mathematics and computer science, an algorith is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning.; pandect: 2. A complete body of laws; bradycardia: slow heartbeat; phylogeny: The evolutionary development and history of a species or higher taxonomic grouping of organisms.; terricolous: living on or in the ground; Liminality is a psychological, neurological, or metaphysical subjective state, conscious or unconscious, of being on the “threshold” of or between two different existential planes, as defined in neurological psychology (a “liminal state”) and in the anthropological theories of ritual by such writers as Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner.; Brutality Between the Lines is one of my poems (found here http://chromapoesy.com/2011/08/05/brutality-between-the-lines/); Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning “circle” and a concept strongly associated with Zen. Ensō is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy even though it is a symbol and not a character. It symbolizes the Absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the Universe, and the void; it can also symbolize the Japanese aesthetic itself. As an “expression of the moment” it is often considered a form of minimalist expressionist art.; metaphrasis: the practice of making a literal translation from one language into another.; Selenography is the study of the surface and physical features of the Moon. Historically, the principal concern of selenographists was the mapping and naming of the lunar maria, craters, mountain ranges, and other various features.; ethnolinguistics: a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and culture, and the way different ethnic groups perceive the world.; axiom: 1. a self-evident truth that requires no proof. 2.a universally accepted principle or rule. 3. Logic, Mathematics. a proposition that is assumed without proof for the sake of studying the consequences that follow from it.; Cultural Schema Theory (Nishida, 1999) explains the familiar and pre-acquainted knowledge one uses when entering a familiar situation in his/her own culture. Cultural schemas for social interaction are cognitive structures that contain knowledge for face-to-face interactions in a person’s cultural environment. Schemas are generalized collections of knowledge of past experiences that are organized into related knowledge groups; they guide our behaviors in familiar situations. Cultural schemas do not differ from other schemas, except that they are shared by certain cultural groups rather than individuals (Garro, 2000). Schemas unique to individuals are created from personal experiences, whereas those shared by individuals are created from various types of common experiences (Garro, 2000). Cultural Schema Theory proposes that when we interact with members of the same culture in certain situations many times, or talk about certain information with them many times, cultural schemas are created and stored in our brain (Nishida, 1999)
Chromapoetica 