TOM CLARK: F.T. Prince: Three Poems / Mimicry

Anita Bognár performs in Dario Fo - Franca Rame: Il risveglio in the Sanyi and Aranka Theatre, Hungary: photo by Attila Servác, 30 April 2015

To a Granddaughter on one of her Suggestions for a Christmas Present

The villains and fools

Who are licensed to pester

Our schools
May force you to study

For their own muddy
Scenario
Dario

Fo:

The People's Court Jester.

But let your Gaffer

By negation

Make a mild affir-

mation:

No,

Not Dario Fo.

F.T. Prince (1912-2003): To a Granddaughter on one of her Suggestions for a Christmas Present, from Collected Poems: 1935-1992 (1993)

Marianna Szalay performs in Dario Fo - Franca Rame: Il risveglio in the Sanyi and Aranka Theatre, Hungary: photo by Attila Servác, 30 April 2015

IMG_1699P1990706 [BarJ, Lake Somerville, TX]: photo by Judy Spradley, 20 October 2011

Creation Myth

Barj made all things, the wild
And then the human --

Two of them: one smiled,
And that became a woman.

F.T. Prince (1912-2003): Creation Myth, from Collected Poems: 1935-1992 (1993)

IMG_1804 [Christmas RD, BarJ, TX]: photo by Judy Spradley, 25 October 2011

IMG_1813 [Christmas RD, BarJ, TX]: photo by Judy Spradley, 21 October 2011

BarJ [TX]: photo by Judy Spradley, 8 November 2013

Soldiers Bathing

Battle scene: Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1504, pen and ink on paper (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

The sea at evening moves across the sand.
Under a reddening sky I watch the freedom of a band
Of soldiers who belong to me. Stripped bare
For bathing in the sea, they shout and run in the warm air;
Their flesh worn by the trade of war, revives
And my mind towards the meaning of it strives.

All's pathos now. The body that was gross,
Rank, ravenous, disgusting in the act or in repose,
All fever, filth and sweat, its bestial strength
And bestial decay, by pain and labour grows at length
Fragile and luminous. 'Poor bare forked animal,'
Conscious of his desires and needs and flesh that rise and fall,
Stands in the soft air, tasting after toil
The sweetness of his nakedness: letting the sea-waves coil
Their frothy tongues about his feet, forgets
His hatred of the war, its terrible pressure that begets
A machinery of death and slavery,
Each being a slave and making slaves of others: finds that he
Remembers his old freedom in a game
Mocking himself, and comically mimics fear and shame.

He plays with death and animality;

And reading in the shadows of his pallid flesh, I see
The idea of Michelangelo's cartoon
Of soldiers bathing, breaking off before they were half done
At some sortie of the enemy, an episode
Of the Pisan wars with Florence. I remember how he showed
Their muscular limbs that clamber from the water,
And heads that turn across the shoulder, eager for the slaughter,
Forgetful of their bodies that are bare,
And hot to buckle on and use the weapons lying there.
–- And I think too of the theme another found
When, shadowing men's bodies on a sinister red ground
Another Florentine, Pollaiuolo,
Painted a naked battle: warriors, straddled, hacked the foe,
Dug their bare toes into the ground and slew
The brother-naked man who lay between their feet and drew
His lips back from his teeth in a grimace.

They were Italians who knew war's sorrow and disgrace
And showed the thing suspended, stripped: a theme
Born out of the experience of war's horrible extreme
Beneath a sky where even the air flows
With lacrimae Christi. For that rage, that bitterness, those blows,
That hatred of the slain, what could they be
But indirectly or directly a commentary
On the Crucifixion? And the picture burns
With indignation and pity and despair by turns,
Because it is the obverse of the scene
Where Christ hangs murdered, stripped, upon the Cross. I mean,
That is the explanation of its rage.

And we too have our bitterness and pity that engage

Blood, spirit, in this war. But night begins,
Night of the mind: who nowadays is conscious of our sins?
Though every human deed concerns our blood,

And even we must know, what nobody has understood,
That some great love is over all we do,
And that is what has driven us to this fury, for so few
Can suffer all the terror of that love:
The terror of that love has set us spinning in this groove
Greased with our blood.

These dry themselves and dress,
Combing their hair, forget the fear and shame of nakedness.
Because to love is frightening we prefer
The freedom of our crimes. Yet, as I drink the dusky air,
I feel a strange delight that fills me full,
Strange gratitude, as if evil itself were beautiful,
And kiss the wound in thought, while in the west
I watch a streak of red that might have issued from Christ's breast.

F.T. Prince (1912-2003): Soldiers Bathing, from Soldiers Bathing, 1954

Study for the Battle of Cascina: Michelangelo Buonarroti, between 1505 and 1506, chalk and silver rod on paper (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)

Study for the Battle of Cascina: Michelangelo Buonarroti, c. 1504, pencil and silverpoint on paper, 235 x 356 mm (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence)

Male Nude, Seen from the Rear (recto): Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1503-04, black chalk, pen and brown ink, 260 x 170 mm (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford)

Study for the Battle of Cascina (central section): Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1505, Oil on panel, 77 x 130 cm (Holkham Hall, Norfolk)

P1990706 [BarJ, Lake Somerville, TX]: photo by Judy Spradley, 21 October 2011

Mimicry

Mysterious nude [New York City]: photo by Nikos Liapis, 3 March 2016

West Glenrosa Avenue. Phoenix, Arizona.: photo by Dan Terasaki, 27 August 2017

Ostrich farm. Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 5 September 2017

Between flowers and a dead tree | by michaelj1998

Between flowers and a dead tree. Los Angeles, Ca.: photo by michaelj1998, 15 September 2017

Parking. Mysterious camera. [Umatilla, Oregon]: photo by efo, 16 September 2017

2017-154. Berkeley, CA.: photo by biosfear, August 2017

Untitled [Toronto]: photo by Mark Koonin, 5 September 2017

God's House of Prayer No. 2. Richmond, Calif.: photo by efo, 17 September 2017

Near Hell's Canyon, Oregon | by austin granger

Hell's Canyon, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 7 September 2017

To the Owens Valley. Eastern Sierra.: photo by bingley0522, 17 September 2017

Convict Lake with rising trout | by bingley0522

Convict Lake with rising trout. Eastern Sierra.: photo by bingley0522, 11 September 2017

Monty and Vida, Mildred Pierce, Michael Curtiz, 1945 | by MichaelRyerson

Monty and Vida, Mildred Pierce, Michael Curtiz, 1945: photo by Michael Ryerson, 17 September 2017

Pendleton, Oregon: photo by Austin Granger, 1 September 2017

2017-184. Fort Bragg, CA.: photo by biosfear, 6 September 2017

Albuquerque, New Mexico: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, January 2016

L1040275. Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles 2016: photo by Brad McMurray, 28 February 2016

Lewisville, TX: photo by Zack Huggins, 25 February 2017

Los Angeles, CA: photo by Mike Murphy, 3 September 2017

Kelp! [California]: photo by Andrew Murr, 17 September 2017

Helena, Arkansas: photo by Andrew Murr, 16 September 2017

Kool door [Clarksdale, MS]: photo by Andrew Murr, 4 July 2017

Pterodactyl flyway [California desert]: photo by Andrew Murr, 16 March 2017

Mojave Desert _0600 (body double): photo by Thomas Willard, 25 August 2017

L100651: photo by Brad McMurray, 16 September 2017

L100651: photo by Brad McMurray, 7 August 2013

My Steps Against Yours [Bloomfield, Pittsburgh, PA]: photo by David Grim, 10 July 2017

DSCF1291: photo by Brad McMurray, 7 August 2013

crnvl 2017: photo by eulalie lolu, 18 March 2017

Texcoco, EDOMEX 2017...: photo by Fermin Guzman, 9 September 2017

Félix Pyat [Marseille]: photo by Yves Vernin, 11 July 2017

pink lady: photo by Francesca Chiacchio, 23 August 2017

Untitled [Chalkidiki, Greece]: photo by Nikos Tsitsel, 30 August 2017

Untitled [Times Square, NYC]: photo by Ash LaRose, 26 June 2012

#China A woman uses her mobile phone as she sits on a bench shaped like a bomb and featuring a US flag outside a store in Beijing. Photo Wang Zhao: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 14 September 2017

^_^ 2008: photo by Ana.Caldas, 27 November 2008

Untitled: photo by Sirawit Kuwawattanont, 9 April 2017

Mimicry [L'viv' Ukraine]_: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 19 August 2017

Mom (Geneva 2017): photo by Suresh Naganathan, 16 August 2017

Kolkata: photo by Muhammad Imam Hasan, 26 June 2017

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY | by BRUNO GUERRA Imagem

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY [Edinburgh]: photo by BRUNO GUERRA Imagem, 23 August 2017

STREET PHOTOGRAPHY [Edinburgh]: photo by BRUNO GUERRA Imagem, 23 August 2017

Untitled [Sao Paulo]: photo by Victor Damasio, 16 August 2017

Poltava, Ukraine, 2017: photo by Steven Jensen, 13 February 2017

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 16 September 2017

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 14 September 2017

Untitled [Sao Paulo]: photo by Gustavo Gomes, 31 July 2017

DSC07069-stavrosstam: photo by Satvros Stamatiou, 14 August 2017

Whitmore Lake, MI 2017: photo by Don Hudson, 14 September 2017

_DSC2265-2 [Chumphon, Thailand]: photo by noppadol maitreechit, 16 August 2016

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 5 July 2017

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 12 September 2017

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 7 July 2017

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 6 July 2017

Untitled: photo by Soumyendra Saha, 19 May 2017

Ryde, I.O.W. '17: photo by M.B', 31 July 2017

Jersey Royals. Jersey Airport, Channel Islands, not North Korea.: photo by Alex B, 27 March 2017

Forensic Science Services II | by Simon J Byrne

Forensic Science Services II: photo by Simon Byrne, 23 July 2017

Swallows [L'viv, Ukraine]: photo by Tetyana Bunyak, 24 March 2013

Deep Excavation Rants [Dubai Marina, UAE]: photo by David Crausby, 7 August 2017

Shinjuku, Tokyo, Apr 2016 | by Shin Noguchi

Shinjuku, Tokyp, Apr 2016: photo by Shin Noguuchi, 21 April 2017

Untitled [Sao Paulo]: photo by Gustavo Gomes, 1 February 2014

Untitled [Sao Paulo]: photo by Gustavo Gomes, 26 May 2016

Untitled: photo by ilan Ben yehuda, 31 June 2016

Untitled: photo by Oscar_from_Denmark, 21 April 2014

Untitled [Asturias]: photo by R, 22 May 2017

Holiday in Buenos Aires: The People | by Oscar_from_Denmark

Holiday in Buenos Aires: The People: photo by Oscar_from_Denmark, 20 December 2012

I can't help but calling it: A Day at the Races | by Oscar_from_Denmark

I can't help but calling it: A Day at the Races: photo by Oscar_from_Denmark, 2 June 2013

London, England: photo by f.d. walker, 13 August 2016

Untitled: photo by BoRIS THE FLASH, February 2017

Untitled: photo by Alioss E, 17 July 2017

@: photo by Ania Klosek, 2 January 2015

Untitled [Milano]: photo by STUART PATON, 2 November 2013

Untitled [Stockholm]: photo by Dmitris Makrygiannakis, 28 October 2013

A man crosses the road with his bicycle in what was once a rebel-controlled area in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. The recapture of eastern Aleppo in December 2016, one of the deadliest episodes of the Syrian civil war, was a landmark victory for Assad's forces in the conflict, now in its seventh year, but it left the area in ruins.: photo by Nataliya Vasilyeva/AP, 12 September 2017

Untitled [Barcelona]: photo by Dmitris Makrygiannakis, 5 June 2017

Auf Der Kluse. Dortmund.: photo by d.n. alor, 3 February 2014

Untitled: photo by Sirawit Kuwawattanont, 2 August 2017

TOM CLARK

Monday, 18 September 2017

F.T. Prince: Three Poems / Mimicry

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