Philippe Tresserra 24 June 2016

                 (Philippe Tresserra 1981)

I couldn't tell so
I showed with body,
They always
Wanting touch,
     -You showed us yours in
     -Front of everyone
     -Outside at
     -The playground;
I make dance, very
Hard, they choose music,
Two song, clothes
On, clothes off,
     -We smiled, you smiled, we
     -Wanted to be friends,
     -You nodded,
     -We all smiled;
They want take pictures,
They keep, me copies,
Business man
And artist,
     -You came over, we
     -Had fun, posing you
     -And making
     -Photographs;
He asks what I want
Do, I say make dance,
He asks want
Go dance school,
     -China cup's hairline
     -Crack, rain, heard, not seen,
     -Popover
     -On cold plate;
He ask where I live,
I say hotel, he say
Stay in my
Apartment,
     -Ice shattered, black smoke
     -Billowed, boiled water
     -Splashed, a flushed
     -Look covered;
Words revolve hamster's
Wheel, swallowing noise
Peering through
The glass sides,
     -Stalking predator
     -Captures handily,
     -Eschewing
     -Consequence;
Rectangles rounded,
Circles squared, patterns
Spoken by
The bodies,
     -Given that moment's
     -Semblance of reading
     -Down wind of
     -Smoking gun;
Sequence built up through
Minimal movements,
Arms, hands, legs,
Feet, trunks, heads,
     -Shot centered, leg, slouched
     -Chest turned, head propped, in
     -Palette of
     -Blue and white;
Stage lights riveting
Eyes to dancer who
Sits on a
Wooden chair,
     -Requisitioned to
     -Sit, gaze deflected,
     -Another
     -Boy subject;
Frozen on his chair,
Frozen on his face,
Expecting
The magic,
     -Dancer found when eyes
     -Look, spotting him leap
     -From the box,
     -From the frame.

24 June 2016

His Father 6 June 2016

                       (My Father 1981)

A boulder mountain
Of compositions'
Bulk, hardbound,
Notes lined, dreams,
     -Cold, volcanic ash
     -Settles, disguised as
     -Dust motes, black
     -Changed to grey;
Fiery outbursts,
Warning shots of youth,
Some bet time,
Some stepped back,
     -Women heel toed the
     -Tremors, tracing from
     -Line's fault to
     -Cradle's side;
Stick built castle: farm;
Workers; income: time,
Freelancing,
Composing,
     -Bars stop, legs block, 'Don't!'
     -'This, not that way,' 'No!'
     -Draw pictures,
     -Mom, sisters;
Core erupts, barn door
Splinters, invective
Curls, chasm
Consuming,
     -Listening, upstairs,
     -Watching across the
     -Table, when
     -Ankles grabbed;
Weekends, conjuring
Symbols from silence
Scribbled on
Sides of times,
     -Skin surrenders to
     -Scissor's detachment,
     -Map without
     -A treasure;
Empty promises,
The handoff of a
Rent-controlled
Apartment,
     -Tightrope strung between
     -Rent check and drudge work,
     -Perception,
     -Prescription;
'Trust your instincts as
Observer,' he said,
Ground coated
Plate gouged, bathed
     -In acid, ink spread,
     -Wiped clean, filled lines pressed
     -Down, absorbed
     -In sheets pulled;
'Trust your judgement from
Works studied, books spread,'
He said, walls'
Admissions
     -Vetted, venom penned,
     -Victims paraded,
     -Callus spared
     -Hands resigned;
Trust to looks in youth,
Beauty's currency
Travel, meals,
Talent, luck?
     -Draw social circle,
     -Art school naturals,
     -Packed pants? Stalls,
     -And valets;
Broad jacket shoulders,
Deep blue background, but
Shirt's neck left
Unbuttoned,
     -Blood red tie loosely
     -Hitched, father, son
     -Seeking the
     -Right balance;
Bald dome, seated on
Concrete, squinting as
Notes travel
The distance,
     -City's vibrancy
     -Resonates too late,
     -Sound, fury,
     -Extinguished.

6 June 2016

Brad Gooch 8 May 2016

                       (Brad Gooch 1983)

Ninth Circle's basement,
The Beast buttoned tight,
I do this,
I do that,
     -Takes in turpentine
     -Cigarette faceoff,
     -Finds a seat,
     -A measure;
Touring Mineshaft by
Cigarette pinprick,
I watch this,
I watch that,
     -Chicken hawk cruising
     -Circle boys molting,
     -I pluck this,
     -I pluck that;
Attendant, the hands,
The ears, faced out when
Laundry, darks,
Sorted, lights,
     -Circulating blond
     -Boy drinking arts poured,
     -Vintage sipped,
     -Nouveau slurped;
Double helix with
Howard entangled,
I twist here,
He twists there,
     -Young man loaned among
     -Older collectors,
     -Unwrapped here,
     -Unwrapped there;
Suburban cushioned,
Pop up, pulled out, planned,
Won't ask, so
Don't spell out,
     -Rural eruption,
     -Back end, breech birth, 'Breathe!'
     -Long gloves slick
     -With life, loss;
Excavation of
Raw life from life dreamed,
I walk to,
I walk from,
     -Blur the face, dull the
     -Voice, bury body,
     -Pulled downward,
     -Lost under;
Cerebral laurels
Plied, thicket beckoned,
Probing skin
Deep pool side,
     -Touchstones, library
     -Thumbed illustrations,
     -Techniques to
     -Copy, own;
Rectangular, squared,
Oval, circular,
What peers out:
Who are you?
     -Left behind, with tip
     -Piled, chipped coffee cup,
     -Chair slid scrape,
     -Seat pad warmth;
Andy, Melinda,
David, and Arnaud,
I sat here,
I sat there,
     -Arthur, Henry, with
     -David, and Alice,
     -We went here,
     -We went there;
Books, of pictures, filed
Paradise Lost, found,
Fruit filled, yet
Fig leaf free,
     -Portraits shaped against
     -Circle's Bedlam cries,
     -Dreams confined
     -To four walls;
Entr'acte, borrowed set,
Roles long ago cast,
Musical
Walk-on part,
     -Dealer, freed to lock,
     -Kill lights, co-habit,
     -Block off all
     -The exits;

Notebook confessions,
Who did what to whom
Notches, belt
Unbuckled,
     -Pocketed paper,
     -Nights' recurring doubts,
     -Flattened out,
     -Deciphered;
Citrus sectioned from
Whole, boyfriend, fuck bud,
Act, ass: sweet,
Acidic,
     -Pedal pushed, swinging,
     -Pedal raised, forward,
     -Uphill, staked,
     -Downhill, braked;
Spliced plumes, one's spice laced
Pulse, one's languorous
Drawl, one's lewd
Squint, moist tongue,
     -Graphite in practiced
     -Hand, swooping, swerving,
     -Popping a
     -Wheelie stop;
Cathedral cloistered,
Self-guided chapels
Tour, tableaux
Close studied,
     -Crammed in studio,
     -Canvas on easel,
     -Hearing each
     -Portrait speak;
Sidestep depiction,
Howard straddled, shown
Lengthwise, a
Closed circuit,
     -Mark, who's Howie, nude,
     -In deck chairs, quick penned,
     -Could show sex
     -Positions;
Puzzle pieces next,
Cut out, should fit, sharp
Edged handled,
Fissured, whole,
     -He drew himself, boy
     -Faded, man formed, dark
     -Lines thickened,
     -Gaze haunting;
Lancelot leather
Bound, Thomas enshrined,
Third vault thus
Sacrificed,
     -Ground down, poured between
     -Sitter and surface,
     -A soulmate
     -Illumined;
Four, squared, porn doors wedged,
Actors' backstories 
Scrolled as told
By writer,
     -Brushed lips spilled gossip
     -Earlier, night's crawl,
     -Young poet
     -Encountered;
Fifth, pink cocoon, made
Up women, plotlines
Corseted,
Cocktails plied,
     -Mom's expectations,
     -Alice's presence,
     -Julia's deep
     -Questioning;
Sneakers descend Ninth
Circle's east wall, day
Swillers pule,
Urine pools,
     -Outsized canvas danced
     -Around in a pair
     -Of beat up,
     -White high-tops;
Eyes fix from all sides,
Mouths mid-comment, space
Crammed, supplies
Strewn, sleeves rolled,
     -Wrestler's neck slowly
     -Pivoting, bull held
     -Back in a
     -China shop,
Shots from all angles
Taken out in back,
Larry talks
A blue streak,
     -Brad unwinds from paid,
     -Prompted model to
     -City boy
     -Poet, smokes;
Dream sequence: nightfall,
Ninth Circle, Howard
Stares, Richard
Speaks, Spitz casts,
     -Iris blue background,
     -Dark helmet, slash brows,
     -Visor raised,
     -Shirt rumpled;
Headshot exploded,
Vulnerable youth
Transparent
Through the man,
     -Faces float out as
     -Muted Greek chorus,
     -Late night talk,
     -Canvas, paint.

8 May 2016

Takedown Portraits Introduction

       (Larry Stanton in his studio, 1984)

'... nothing dies that is remembered.' Dr. Julia A. Mayo (Larry's psychiatrist)

Takedown. Definition 1: 'To get into one's hands control or possession.' The portraits of artist Larry Stanton, (website larrystanton.net), display his eventual mastery of crayon, pen, and brush as he confronted opportunities to record what he saw, whether in his studio, or at a Village diner.

Definition 2: 'A wrestling manoeuvre through which an opponent is swiftly brought to the mat from a standing position.' His sitters were never opponents, were unlikely to be standing, but strangers whom he noticed, friends, and/or well known men in the arts, such as the poets Donald Britton and Tim Dlugos, the playwright/actor/director Charles Ludlam, the writers Brad Gooch and Dennis Cooper, the critic Oleg Kerensky. His portraits, thrown onto a canvas mat, pinned their likenesses.

Definition 3: 'Having the capability of being taken down or taken apart.' Fighting his own demons, Larry could, and did, look deeply into himself, and into others, when drawing and painting them, dragging those insights up into the image surface.

This is a book about the portraits, the drawings, and paintings, by Larry Stanton, 1947-1984. It consists of what I call 'duets,' or conversations which I imagined taking place in his studio while he was working with each of his sitters. In format, the odd number stanzas, first, third, fifth, etc. are in the voice of the sitter. The even number, indented, stanzas, two, four, six, etc., are in the voice of Larry Stanton. I do not believe that I ever met him, or that I ever heard his voice. I did walk along West 10th Street regularly in 1984, passing his studio sign. 

I have also not met most of the sitters, but thanks to their writing about themselves, to others writing about them, to their writing about art, music, literature, theatre, dance, life, I have tried to come up with voices, verbal representations,  which are uniquely theirs. At times, words are spoken out loud, or quoted directly. At other times, words are thought. If successful, in both cases, each reaches you, the reader, as if from living people who are thereby remembered.

[The Reproductions of paintings and drawings by Larry Stanton appear with permission from his executor, Arthur Lambert, Jr.] 

[Two portraits have been published previously, in 'Lustspiel Magazine,' (23 November 2016), and in 'RFD Magazine,' (Summer 2016), in different formats.]

(Draft board classifying officer takes down details from physical exam.)

First Name: Winthrop     Last Name: Smith

Today's Date: 01-01-2021 Age: 65

Gender: Male Orientation: Gay

Service Branch: Writer Status: Active duty

Current Contact Information:

8 Grand Street Augusta ME 04330

mainepoet@gmail.com

Number of Deployments: 4 previous books

Medical Conditions:

Family Medical History:

Report of Medical Exam:

Copyright © 2021 by Winthrop Smith

Work-in-progress: shadow-wrestling.blogpot.com