Thursday, December 20, 2012

Piece of Work

Kerry at Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads encourages us to write about "pastiche."







Piece of Work
(for R)


You would love
the sound,
so French,
and you, so
urbane, so
je ne sais quois...
I can see you,
lips a coral megaphone
against your small white teeth,

"Pastiche."

Pull the last syllable
like strung pearls.
Look it up,
you think it's you,
formed, as you love to say
from disparate sources.
Your parents
in their snarl and tangle
create,
reproduction
at its finest.

Standing as you do
inside the frame,
you count each stroke
a master,
adjust the light
just so,
the better to be seen.

Standing with the crowd,
I see pastiche.
Burlesque, mish-mosh,
mockery, send up,
cartoon. Take off,
a sham,
and you, my dear,
on your turquoise heels,
you wear your patchwork
like a queen.



Location:Piece of Work

16 comments:

  1. Karen you see pastiche I see phantasmagoria.

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    1. In reality, that's probably a better description, Mark!

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  2. I love this. It is a fine piece of poetry, with a firm hold on content while allowing the reader leeway of imagination. I was totally in the frame you created up to the last two amazing lines.

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    1. Thanks, Kerry. I almost didn't post it; it feels that uncharitable. It's possibly the meanest thing I've written (but it's oh, so true)!

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  3. Wow. Such spit! Such polish! We are all of a pastiche, but rarely this beautifully parsed out. Thank you.

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    1. Thank you, Susan, and I think you're right; we are all of a pastiche, but hopefully, some of us are not such as are seen from funhouse mirrors. That was the image that kept running through my mind as I thought of this particular subject.

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  4. This is really lovely. So many beautiful phrasings. I like the ending.........'You wear your patchwork like a queen.'

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  5. such self-indulgence, argh. i like the above "phantasmagoria" comment. indeed.

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    1. Indeed! Thanks, Marion! I couldn't agree more...self-indulgent and self-absorbed.

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  6. Pastiche and Hodgepodge to the 'nth' degree ~ love this!

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  7. Exquisite and elegant, specially the last lines ~ Beautiful work ~

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like a French chanson. I can hear Patachou sing it.
      Musical and visual at the same time.

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  8. I'd like to meet your patchwork queen: we have things in common!

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  9. I love your patchwork queen...It is sound and color. Beautiful!

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