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Sunday 27 March 2011

Artistic Motivation - Self Portrait

The Dissertation Series continues its second cycle; the poet responds to WE THE MODERNS featuring Henri Gaudier-Brzeska at Graves Art Gallery - Sheffield, April 2007

Self Portrait

Reds, browns, yellows, oranges, greens
Cream, did you say cream
These were your colours were they Z-B?

Modigliani, Matisse, Alexander Archipenko
Auguste Rodin, Rodin did you say
And these were your eminent contemporaries Z-B?

I step sideways besides a Giacometti
Forwards, there a Pablo Picasso TĂȘte de Femme
Sideways Giacometti, straight ahead Pablo Picasso

Slow down, stand back, take a breath
At the entrance, on the wall - a self portrait
The pastel chiselled features of a most attractive younger man

A short life, she the second part of your name
A woman almost twice your age, such life in a short life
Home thoughts from abroad, in your own self portrait

Context: Your contemporaries live forever
Pretext: The war came, you never…