Sunday, October 23, 2005
or
Art About Art For the Sake of Art
The first draft of my final poetry project is due this Friday, gentle readers, and I have only just begun. After lengthy deliberation, I have decided to write a series of ekphrastic poems on my favorite Ferdinand Hodler painting:
My goal is to approach the painting from several very different poetic perspectives. Yesterday, I finished my first rough draft.
I. Part One (Untitled as of yet)
Hodler's vision did not include
The model's pubic hair -
a secondary sex
characteristic
deemed inaesthetic by the Greeks.
We are not surprised, then
To learn that the model did not flinch
When Hodler placed
His brush between
Her legs, and smoothed
The fibrous rill;
Satisfactorily denuded, the girl
Presents a mound
fit for nascent venus by the shore
sacrificial maid
or whore.
When in doubt, write about pubic hair. Comments on the painting, the poem, or both are most welcome.
