Artistic Motive

Face of the woman in Leonardo’s
‘Virgin on the Rocks’, he meant as sublime
could, with its side tilt, be thought comatose.
So, placed sideways, the idea of mine,

head and blue-cloaked shoulders on a table.
The rest of her not seen, behind cluster
of surgeons, all attired to enable
operation, …. don’t see …., to adjust her.

Noticed headline about surgical ban
on, what is termed, ‘virginity repair’.
Hymenoplasty. Before marriage, plan.
So, purity it’s thought divinely there.

My art picture, then, has the two merging.
Titled, ‘Restoration of the Virgin’.

The opening bars matter. Go straight in.
The drumbeat starting immediately.
No gentle little intro to begin.
Such a melody, deceiving would be.

Instead, beat and rhythm comes crashing in.
Determinedly starts as will go on.
Should be played loud, although not deafening.
To lower the volume, be simply wrong.

It is energetic. Meant to enthuse.
Possibly a cry to arms; to action.
A tribalist foot-stomper that ensues.
From the pounding-out, there’s no distraction.

Drums, but with varying sounds to compare.
Heard at the match, to get in the mood there.

Descriptions in a language described as
‘dead’, ‘neutral’, ‘technical’. Avoidance speak.
Set against what really so, this ‘tongue’ crass.
Deliberately obscure and oblique.

Maintains the ‘justification’; meant to;
or, unaddressed actual made general
to not give rise to comments critical.
Avoid light on the unreasonable.

Words of those who played a role in the deed.
Not admitting to participation.
With the blandest of expression proceed.
And deny part, if investigation.

Without regret, truth not want to recall.
First stage, language ‘dead’, ‘neutral’, ‘technical’.

Welcome to ‘Hardtalk’. Let’s start about you.
You were in an important position.
In that role, what were you able to do?
Did you make a life-changing decision?

I don’t mean ‘your life’, I mean ‘peoples’ lives’.
You were given responsibility
under our system, as it so provides,
for determining public policy.

What were the reforms you implemented?
How did you address inequality?
What did you do so the worst prevented,
like social injustice and poverty?

Don’t be coy. Don’t be mute. Articulate.
In whose interest did you operate?

Hands do get placed on a person’s body.
They can have an effect; get a response.
Massaging, or laid tender as can be.
Flat palms; straight fingers; if on head, anoints.

In some way, can be stimulatory.
Can certainly be recuperative.
The touching done with sensitivity.
Like skin parched given lubricant to live.

Have been known, in a religious context,
to produce, what is claimed, a miracle.
Maybe that plays on what think can expect.
Healing; accepting God; reciprocal.

Hands, too, play their part in actions of love.
May feel as if touched with a velvet glove.

Okay, we are free. We are in the clear.
Escaped before the trap door closed tight shut.
Would never have been found. Just disappear.
Would not be around to tell, or write-up.

But we broke from the shackles, just in time,
and went through the gap as the door closing.
Villain who put us there, now have to find.
And, in kind, return the violence chosen.

Could be out of a Patterson novel.
He does have co-authors. I could be one.
Thrillers, with the criminals to reveal.
Action lead to murderer number one.

Mine, an extract for anyone a fan.
Say, from Patterson and The Sonnet Man.

A magic poem would be amazing.
With tricks of the trade somehow replacing
the ordinary. That verse erasing.
The new one, with illusion, creating.

It is not sleight of hand kind of magic,
or the making of something disappear.
Safely sawing in half, whilst in box fit,
or wing-flapping doves, from nowhere appear.

But I have a wand. It can tap my mind.
Imaginary wonders can arise.
Can see things to which otherwise be blind.
Can take off, or even don, a disguise.

A poet is able to do the trick.
Turn into mood, words, as if by magic.

Naiads and Dryads, carry-on their lives
by water, in trees. That is where will be.
To nearly all eyes, stay unrecognised.
But, allegedly, there, invisibly.

By rivers, lakes, waterways and fountains,
naiads inhabit, according to myth.
Surface sparkle, may be one announcing
presence; or in flower that gently drift.

By trees, in woodlands, around mass of plants,
dryads are. Ancient Greeks considered so.
On still leaves, sleep. Where a breeze, makes them dance.
And in the glossiness, that’s where they show.

A water kiss, energises naiads.
One on the earth, does the same for dryads.

It came to mind as ‘pottering’ around.
Porcelain. China. Bone China. Fine China.
As I did contemplate, I heard the sound.
Porcelain. For a dinner service, finer.

Finer in its look and utility
than unpainted earthenware and stoneware.
And with its whiteness, as hard as can be.
For use time and again; unbroken fare.

Vitreous material, firm to mould,
then fired at very high temperature.
The finish, of course, allowed to get cold;
for utensil fit for an emperor.

Plain white or with design, it is the same
for you and I, if we own some porcelain.

Elimination games. “One leaving us …”
‘Those leaving us, … because they are stupid! …
Have failed. Case of ‘prize or bust’. They have bust’.
Moment in the spotlight. ‘Fame’, then lose it.

Elimination games. Being ‘cast out’.
Never to be seen or heard of, again.
Someone else will make off with the amount,
or fail at the death to achieve that gain.

Of course, the presenters are highly paid,
to reflect charm and personality.
Whilst they compere, that never seems to fade,
although much robotic banality.

And when gets moronic, that’s such a shame.
Off, makes sense, in elimination game.

The Earth is in orbit around the Sun.
A year, until back where it started from.
As it does, it spins. A full rotation
on its own axis, and a day is done.

But what if the world becomes top-heavy?
Gold, silver, and all the precious metals
hoarded in the top-half, so unsteady;
then tilts, then to slowly turning settles;

up to down; down to up; gradually.
Those who were up, with locks and chains tie tight
what they own and themselves, unmovably.
Whilst those who were down, slide, when get upright.

Might speed-up, might slow-down. Might stand. Might fall.
Children let loose might meet near the middle.