Deep into Art

Angelina Jolie as seen by Leonardo Da Vinci. Da Vinci's Leda

Begin with a wash of black
for all is dark
when not exposed to light.

Deceive the stupid multitudes
like Pharisees and friars
who make employment
of delusions
and false miracles;

who suffer from their own opinions:
the greatest of all deceptions.

Confusion
round and about
the universe:

Mist mingles with Air.
Water flows turbid,
mixes with Soil and Dust.
Though each with each,
Fire remains on its own.

East rushes Westward.
South to the North.

With great noise,
trembling with fury
the artist must express until
painting becomes poetry
that is seen; never heard.

And poetry heard; not seen
is written from painting.

*****************

This was written and posted for:

 dversepoets Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft –

Prose to Poetry by Claudia where we were supposed to select a piece of poetic prose, reformat it to look like a poem, rework it to meet your standards for poetry.

Instead of choosing one text, I found some quotes by Leonard da Vinci and melded them into a poem:

• Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen.
• The East will be seen to rush to the West and the South to the North in confusion round and about the universe, with great noise and trembling or fury.
• Of Water, which flows turbid and mixed with Soil and Dust; and of Mist, which is mixed with the Air; and of Fire which is mixed with its own, and each with each.”
• Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude. Pharisees— that is to say, friars.
• The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.
• A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by the light.
• The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

Photo credit: Freaking News  Photoshop contest – Leonardo da Vinci pictures,  directions to artists were:

In this contest you are asked to show how paintings and inventions by Leonardo Da Vinci would look if he created them these days. Show his modernized work created simply for art, or for commercial purposes (advertising, political campaigns, etc.)

Rachel’s Ladder

Rosie Hardy - Self Portrait

     I. When There Is

No darkness without light.
No rest without sleep.
No dreams without love.
No madness without obsession.
No miracles without imagination.

    II. The Builders

Angles and machines build
a nimbus on my breath.
A cherub sends a raincloud.
Archangels bleed excess

   III. The Rest Place

To return
without denial
to a warm body.
My head on a cushion
soul and joy are one.

    IV. The Twin Flame

In dreamland
our silver threads meet:
A love affair in corporeality.

************************

I think this is the last One Stop Poetry Challenge for Sunday:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/sunday-photography-interview-rosie-hardy-poetry-challenge.html

This is the:  Sunday Photography Interview: Rosie Hardy & Poetry Challenge

I got the picture from her website, specifically, the Self-Portrait Section:

http://www.rosiehardy.com/1145-self-portraits

in the red

Neil Alexander explores light

in the red

you don’t think
it’s going to happen
until it actually does

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

take precautions
take a breath
listen and learn

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

walking to school
running to the store
what did you forget?

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

a kick here
a punch there
it won’t add up

 count to ten
 in the red
 don't get to mad
 it's in your head

************************

A one stop poetry Sunday challenge.  Choose from the works of Photographer Neil Alexander.

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/sunday-photography-interview-neil-alexander-poetry-challenge.html

Messy Little Girl

Messy Little Girl

Mama’s gone shopping,
time to uproot.
Grandma won’t mind
if there’s dirt on the fruit.

Messy little girl,
spits on the soil
plays a crazy game
rolls up roots in a coil.

Who wrote the rules
whence plants must stay;
when there are no friends
who can come and play?

Messy little girl
turned over the pot.
The plant might live
Or perhaps, it might not.

************************

Written for:

I was asked by someone involved with bluebell to write something about this image, which is credited to mnn.com -> Mother Nature’s Network. I figured, why not, and even made it rhyme.

Posted on:

Open Link Night ~ Week 39

Also posted on:

M is for Me me me!

Joy Garrison Programs: Command Highlight

     A. Joy

I was born Joy, to enjoy
in a state of overjoyment,
an adventurous joyrider.

I play with a joystick
always joyfully, giving others
much enjoyment.

In this game,
my obstructors
are killjoys.

      B. Garrison

Ghosts defend me
through time, as I design
the ultimate garrison.

Understandably, my actions
lie on the periphery
of the fourth dimension.

I build protective barriers
so you can hold flowers
so you can smile.

     C. Command

The laws of life
move me along.

If I don’t see it,
I make it.

I theorize.
I change the facts.

As I change,
I command the world.

     D. Highlight

Watch me move the pieces:
A Queens Gambit
A fancy castling.
I always defend.
I always protect.
Do not seek my highlights.
I have not peaked:
too much to achieve.

************************

Posted on:

Open Link Monday

The artwork is by Bonnie. Her blog is http://originalartstudio.blogspot.com/

This piece is a response to onestop poetry challenge:

 http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/friday-poetically-with-brian-miller-21.html

I’m not sure what this work will mean to you, but I will assume no one will guess how/why I wrote this. After I explain it, it may make even less sense. 😉

Some time before seven this morning, I HAD to get on my computer to do some preliminary work on my screenplay. I booted up, and instead of NOT turning on my browser, I brought up Google Chrome, clicked on the one stop poetry page, and saw the challenge.  I decided that in order not to waste my time of not writing my screenplay, the only solution was to write the poem about my main character.

I had no idea what to write about. I read the first poem posted, by Esther Douek. This can be found on

http://www.estherdouek.com/?p=381

Her poem is titled: “A Salesman with X-ray Vision | The Eyes of Poetry” . Her concept of X-Ray made me think of Four Dimensional art, as in Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)  Salvador Dalí. (1954).   Which you can see on  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dali_Crucifixion_hypercube.jpg

My protagonist’s name is Bashira Garrison. Bashira is a popular Muslim Girl name. It’s Urdu and Arabic for “Joyful.”   The main theme in my screenplay is “Protecting the Protector.” This is why her last name is Garrison. I called the character in my poem “Joy” instead of “Bashira” because I could play with the word “joy.” Poetry is all about playing and painting with words. So at least that part should make sense.

The image, above is saved as file name “ghist.jpg” . I thought it could be a mispelling or perhaps a variant of “ghost”, because it’s a ghostly image. I looked it up, and it’s a computer command: command highlight. The picture is one big highlight.

Bashira is an engineer who is developing a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV). She often must re-programm the control system, so I thought that naming  this poem about Bashira (Joy) after a computer command would be apt.

Yesterday, someone asked me if my poetry was inspired by some sort of ” gift from a higher power.” It’s not.

This is how my poetry is contrived: I have one thing in my head, in this case doing some analysis on my screenplay. Then I encounter something I have to write a poem about, in this case a onestop poetry challenge. I take the two concepts and blend them into an abstraction. I look up words and phrases. I use them in my poem. In this case, I looked up variants of words with Joy in them. I looked up famous quotes for the words “change” and “highlight.”  That’s pretty much it.

off-center

Adam Romanowicz - Convergence

in coordinate and velocity space
a clear compositional asymmetry
shifts mass from the hub.

various elements are produced.
an expansion timescale distributes
reaction product elements.

radial detonation wave
expands in the propagation direction.
thermodynamic trajectories are dense.

this off-center special distribution
is a toy model
of a massive white star.
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Here’s another “One Stop Poetry Challenges.” This time I’m writing in response to the photography of Adam Romanowicz, an engineer in the real world.

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/06/sunday-photography-interview-adam-romanowicz-poetry-challenge.html

Bottle Out

Bottle Out – iPad Drawing by Alison Jardine

Fine nouveax deco
Running glaze.
Grass green;
Color slipping
On and off the surface.

Rough as a bead,
Feel the edges.

An instant favorite
Opalescent
Ground to the base.
Daring and vamp,
Sleek flattering shape.

Dramatic cameo.
Open it up.
Olfactory experience.

Signature etched
Virtual art.

************************

Here’s another “One Stop Poetry Challenges.”  It’s Friday Poetry with Brian Miller:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/06/friday-poetically-with-brian-miller-19.html

The assignment was to select a picture from:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/06/one-stop-spotlight-artist-alison-jardine.html

It’s another quickie. 😉

on 183rd

Deadbeatniks Graffiti By Joel Friese

on 183rd with a dozen spray paint cans:
blues of all moods, an orange and pink,
a mean type of brown (it’s a bit like red ink)

he announced a band, from a time long ago
when rebels rejected old middle class views
when jazz was exciting (only politics made the news)

he drew a motif on cold urban bricks
to soften the hardness of the dullest of greys
and brighten up anxiety, driven, sad mournful days

no one had noticed (it’s another city wall)
the metropolean sounds blocked out the sights
thus, his artwork just faded into a lonely black night

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Here’s another “One Stop Poetry Challenges.” This time I’m writing in response to the graffiti art page:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/06/one-stop-poetry-the-arts-and-graffitiiogg.html

Also posted on:

Poetry Jam – the sound of music •♪•♫•♪•

Also posted on:

Write2Day: Music and the Written Word

The Load ― Remembered

The Load ― Remembered

The metal hanging
from a chain around
his drooping neck ― kept.
His courage ― endures.
His heart ― remembered.
His load ― in pictures.
His cold ghost ― in the beyond.

But no record of back pain.
No recollection of his warmth.
No discussion of limbs,
shorn like Samson’s hair.

Alone, he shivered in the darkness.
He thought of home.
He thought of better days.

Yet nothing could fill the absence
of his soul defeated
by the echoing blast of his first kill.

************************

This is my memorial day contribution.

I got the picture from http://www.ontherightinva.com/2010/05/30/memorial-day-2/

Between Buildings

From the city alley
appraise a sliver of sky.
Streams of clouds
progress in currents.

Through windows,
saxophones
and treble voices
compete for bandwidth.

In the city alley
the superhero waits
to explode/to save
the world from itself.

************************

 Posted on:

The Poetry Pantry Is Now Open! – #75

Also posted on:

poets-rally-week-63

His organization is Fragile Oasis  and he’s also on facebook.

Again, I won’t usually be writing free form poetry on this blog, unless it’s there for a reason. It looks like I might actually have a periodic reason: these “One Stop Poetry Challenges.” This time I’m writing in response to the Photography of Scott Wyden.”  The website is:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/05/sunday-photography-interview-scott-wyden-poetry-challenge.html