Tag Archives: Image

Iconic [Free Verse]

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Bruce Lee statue by Cao Chong-En located on the Avenue of Stars, Tsim Sha Tsui East, Kowloon, Hong Kong.
Everyone gets to be a person,
   Few become icons:

 What is it to have a lasting 
      image more well-known 
          than one's work? 

 Che Guevara, Bruce Lee,
    Heath Ledger's Joker -- 

 Images you can find on 
   back-alley walls from Lagos
   to Prague to Kochi
   to Seoul to Santiago
       and back again. 

Seen day-after-day by people
   who never saw Enter the Dragon
   or read of the Cuban Revolution,
   or saw Nolan's Batman Trilogy,
      but they know the faces. 

They have thoughts about them
      -- and, sometimes, strong feelings --
   just like so many people have 
   thoughts about Alexander the Great 
       based solely on his name
       and a rough impression of history.

What must this be...
    blessing or curse ...
       if icons had some way to care?

Hermit’s Face [Haiku]

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hermit's face forms
 amid river ripples:
  fades like dream remnant.

“Are you the new person drawn toward me?” by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

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Are you the new person drawn toward me?
 To begin with, take warning, I am surely far
   different from what you suppose;
 Do you suppose you will find in me your
   ideal?
 Do you think it so easy to have me become
   your lover?
 Do you think the friendship of me would 
    be unalloy'd satisfaction?
 Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
 Do you see no further than this facade,
    this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
 Do you suppose yourself advancing on real
   ground toward a real heroic man?
 Have you no thought, O dreamer, that is
   may be all maya, illusion?

Self Portrait [Common Meter]

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So many historic figures 
 whose look we think we know.
  Did Jesus of Nazareth sport
   hippie hair & a halo?

Perhaps, he did have quite long hair
 but not the tawny blonde
  of which so many "portraitists"
   seemed to be quite fond.

The Shakespeare that we recognize 
 is drawn from memory.
  Kings oft declared true depiction
   a form of treachery. 

Past commoners' appearances 
 are lost in bygone days.
  We know Van Gogh from a mad mind,
    and know him thirty ways. 

Do you know whose look we do know?
 Every teen now alive.
  There're pics from every angle
   stored on redundant drives.