“The Oscar Statue” by tezebe
shallow courtiers
donning crowns for applause
pretending we care
From my books Bohemian Scents and Riverthink
Acting
All posts tagged Acting
Painting by Sir Anthony Hopkins
stretched between maybes
tremble tissues of batwings
extended suspended from
overhead recesses dark and
theatrically cavernous damp
taut and fraught with the
flopsweat of uncertain endings
anxiety shudders with cold
possibilities membranes
divide when from then hanging
curtains of skin in proscenium
attitude blinding the actor
to obvious outcomes no sense
of the audience all of his choices
of speech caught on tenterhooks
black iron forgings catch drop
of the drapes veined in turn
with their coursings of pulsing
soliloquy colloquy obloquy
no loss for words among thespian
creatures the trick is to draw
down the right form of rhetoric
this is no time for embarrassing
truths from some too-honest
leadership life and blood loyalties
hang in stark balance and
consequence augurs for quick
stepping out to the footlights
performing whatever deceits
keep concealed the real nature
of sharp-toothed insectivores
From my book Ephemera
“Man in Black Hat” by David Flam
any white shirt would do
for a black and white stageplay
as long as I got to recite
my lines wearing my old
soft black cowboy hat
crown-pinched and brim-rolled
like pages of scripts my gray
fingers would worry
again and again line-by-line
word-for-word all to memorize
life in the hope that some
slightest applause
might redeem the dull effort
(originally posted December 2013)
Photo from ‘The Guardian’
(Originally posted February 2014)
(For Philip Seymour Hoffman 1967-2014)
what agony pierces the veins
with such pleasure that art
must be murdered by muscle
and malice self-loathing the
criminal mastermind inside
the psycho-biology tortured
by exquisite talent and pain
breaks the hearts that erupt
in applause moved and lifted
aloft by a consummate body
of work time and over again
left to grieve and consider why
some gifts are so ill-endowed
with inherently punishing
conflict of blessing and curse
Stage Backdrop – Image by EveyD
born in the theater wings
baptized in greasepaint
brought up to believe
all that mattered was
ever the play
learned her lines every
nuanced direction of script
trod the boards tripped
the lights earned applause
from the play
died among rose bouquets
taking her curtain calls
makeup run ruined by tears
missed a genuine life
for the play
“The Oscar Statue” by tezebe
shallow courtiers
donning crowns for applause
pretending we care
Theater Footlights
Photo from controlbooth.com
we are part of the play
even as we hide
alone in the shadows
candled footlights reveal
our mind to the ten
thousand eyes of the room
our unspoken speech
heard in heads
nodding knowingly
actors often perform
most profoundly
when silent as stone
stories tell of themselves
upon faces who live
unaware of the show
Poesy plus Polemics 