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s e l f - p o r t r a i t a s w i k i p e d i a e n t r y
s e l f - p o r t r a i t a s w i k i p e d i a e n t r y
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Many of the poems in Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry engage visual culture, refer to individual paintings and photographs, and/or deploy the vocabulary of painting and photography.
This page provides a visual map of some of the art the poems enter into conversation with, including the amazing cover by Marnie Spencer, detailed below. |
Paul Klee, Ad Marginem (1930)
poem: "A Page of Spring" Parchment of leaf-life, parched sugar sun, wind up and convert our lost letters, turn light into light, make our eyes see the eye in sea and leaf light. Crown of thistle thorn, we wear you he way the sun wears the cross. |
Paul Klee, Man in Love (1923)
poem: "Twenty Lines on Paul Klee's Man in Love" For that slice of sky The heavy leaf the cupped Hand the opened lip in And into which we fall Without belt or net |
Paul Klee, Angelus Novus (1920)
poem: "Forecast" The new angel will rise and fall at the same time, like a sequence of events inverted |
Sesshu Toyo, detail from Long Landscape Scroll (1486). The actual painting rolls out to about 50 feet.
Poem: "Poem in Which Readers Select Their Favorite Title"
The moon unwinds it scarf
and dives into the pond.
Nothing on the water
but the strange shadows
of this life
Poem: "Poem in Which Readers Select Their Favorite Title"
The moon unwinds it scarf
and dives into the pond.
Nothing on the water
but the strange shadows
of this life
Paul Klee, Winter Journey (1921)
poem: "Paul Klee's Winter Journey at the Beginning of Spring"
. . . you know find yourself in front of a tombstone fixed in a graveyard you do not
know. The sky has put itself on ice, the lone tree a chalice-spike of ash.
poem: "Paul Klee's Winter Journey at the Beginning of Spring"
. . . you know find yourself in front of a tombstone fixed in a graveyard you do not
know. The sky has put itself on ice, the lone tree a chalice-spike of ash.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Hay Wagon (1500-1502). Triptych; here with the panels open. |
The Hay Wagon with the panels closed.
poem: Want or American Allegory III hunger is no horse asleep beneath the umbrella of heaven it will not wake Mr. Bosch and walk backward into the reins history has held we all want to climb up into something we cannot understand |
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Marnie Spencer, Portrait of a Poet (2016)
Marnie Spencer's spectacular original artwork for the cover is itself a visual map of the book, with each panel corresponding to one or more poems. Her captions for each panel are below:
Row One, left to right
1. POEM IN WHICH READERS SELECT THEIR FAVORITE TITLE
“... never really knowing if we are the arrow
or the bow.”
2. FORECAST
“A weathervane ...” “The angel keeps going in circles.”
STILL LIFE IN FIVE ROOMS
“Where I realized that everything
eventually ends up in your house ...”
3. POEM FOR THE WORLD
“The poem for the world begins like this:
©$♪☒
DEMOCRACY OR POEM IN WHICH READERS SELECT THEIR FAVORITE LAST LINE
“God in his little boat of straw ...”
SELF PORTRAIT: POSTMORTEM
“And now picture the poet asleep in
the boat; you have set him there
the way you might gently place a doll
in a crib ...”
4. CARTOGRAPHY OR AMERICAN ALLEGORY
“Poem of open prairie, couplet of the spread out sky,
metaphor of mistletoe and milkweed: who will write
Oklahoma?”
Row 2, left to right Row 3, left to Right
5. STILL LIFE IN FIVE ROOMS 9. POEM FOR MY WIFE COMPOSED PARTIALLY IN THE MANNER
“ ... beetles, butterflies, bugs from every continent, OF CHRIS AND DESIREE FROM BACHELORETTE
run through with the tiniest of pins ...” “ ... you look into the camera and ask
if I will accept this rose, and I
6. APOCRYPHAL SELF-PORTRAIT always say yes.”
“cut-up clouds”
AMERICAN SELF-PORTRAIT: STUDY OF THE OTHER SELF
CARTOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN ALLEGORY “... more that a splint and a bandage.
“All roads might lead to Rome, I am the fracture ...”
but all trails take you to Oklahoma.”
10. STILL LIFE IN FIVE POEMS
SELF-PORTRAIT IN SPACE “I have to ask you about Baudelaire ...”
“Death is a bear wearing
a red hat shaped like a cone.” 11. POEM OF PREVARICATION TO BEGIN THE SECOND SECTION
“In the beginning was the empty
7. AMERICAN SELF-PORTRAIT square of the heart. Marked with an X.”
“Give me the sheriff star pinned to the mermaid ...”
12. AMERICA I DO NOT CALL YOUR NAME WITHOUT HOPE
8. APOCRYPHAL SELF-PORTRAIT “history’s white horse”
“I want you to know that when those memories drop
down, my umbrella opens.” HOW WE SURVIVE: A TRIPTYCH
“Tonight I made love to you wearing a suit of armor.”
POEM OF PREVARICATION TO BEING THE SECOND SECTION
“In the beginning, there was the lattice work of
the body.”
Marnie Spencer's spectacular original artwork for the cover is itself a visual map of the book, with each panel corresponding to one or more poems. Her captions for each panel are below:
Row One, left to right
1. POEM IN WHICH READERS SELECT THEIR FAVORITE TITLE
“... never really knowing if we are the arrow
or the bow.”
2. FORECAST
“A weathervane ...” “The angel keeps going in circles.”
STILL LIFE IN FIVE ROOMS
“Where I realized that everything
eventually ends up in your house ...”
3. POEM FOR THE WORLD
“The poem for the world begins like this:
©$♪☒
DEMOCRACY OR POEM IN WHICH READERS SELECT THEIR FAVORITE LAST LINE
“God in his little boat of straw ...”
SELF PORTRAIT: POSTMORTEM
“And now picture the poet asleep in
the boat; you have set him there
the way you might gently place a doll
in a crib ...”
4. CARTOGRAPHY OR AMERICAN ALLEGORY
“Poem of open prairie, couplet of the spread out sky,
metaphor of mistletoe and milkweed: who will write
Oklahoma?”
Row 2, left to right Row 3, left to Right
5. STILL LIFE IN FIVE ROOMS 9. POEM FOR MY WIFE COMPOSED PARTIALLY IN THE MANNER
“ ... beetles, butterflies, bugs from every continent, OF CHRIS AND DESIREE FROM BACHELORETTE
run through with the tiniest of pins ...” “ ... you look into the camera and ask
if I will accept this rose, and I
6. APOCRYPHAL SELF-PORTRAIT always say yes.”
“cut-up clouds”
AMERICAN SELF-PORTRAIT: STUDY OF THE OTHER SELF
CARTOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN ALLEGORY “... more that a splint and a bandage.
“All roads might lead to Rome, I am the fracture ...”
but all trails take you to Oklahoma.”
10. STILL LIFE IN FIVE POEMS
SELF-PORTRAIT IN SPACE “I have to ask you about Baudelaire ...”
“Death is a bear wearing
a red hat shaped like a cone.” 11. POEM OF PREVARICATION TO BEGIN THE SECOND SECTION
“In the beginning was the empty
7. AMERICAN SELF-PORTRAIT square of the heart. Marked with an X.”
“Give me the sheriff star pinned to the mermaid ...”
12. AMERICA I DO NOT CALL YOUR NAME WITHOUT HOPE
8. APOCRYPHAL SELF-PORTRAIT “history’s white horse”
“I want you to know that when those memories drop
down, my umbrella opens.” HOW WE SURVIVE: A TRIPTYCH
“Tonight I made love to you wearing a suit of armor.”
POEM OF PREVARICATION TO BEING THE SECOND SECTION
“In the beginning, there was the lattice work of
the body.”