A Dozen Chinoiseries--Dr Uplift submission

Dr Uplift submission--A Dozen Chinoiseries

 

POETICAL PORTRAYALS OF ARTS (PT. I)--

TWELVE POETRIES

 

[Contents]

 

(1)

 

FROM CHINA THROUGH JAPAN

 

(2) 

 

Vertigo

Tribute to HK Skyline

 

(3)

 

Like (Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum)

 

(4) 

 

Poetical Portrayal of Ryukyu Ware

Earthen Urus and Where Abouts of Ceramics

 

(5)

 

EYES WIDE OPEN (Pt II)

 

(6)

 

Parted by Two-eyes View

Young Smile Shy Eyes

 

(7)

 

West Lake (i, ii, iii)

 

(8)

 

Rather (Landscape in Verdant and Ocher)

Academic Criticisms Before and Beyond

 

(9) 

 

Bountiful Harvest

 

(10)

 

Erasures

One More In-between

 

(11)

 

King Prayer

 

(12)

 

Il Mosè--Semeiosis (Pt I)

Michelangelo in Vincoli

 

[Chinoiseries]

 

(1)

 

FROM CHINA THROUGH JAPAN

 

Loneliness of locals’ statics,

abundancies of moving shores,

poverties of silent peasants,

opulences in party’s lights,

country sites versus citations

meeting in stammering articulations

of small is strong ends largest weak

of introversions to nature mystics--

Lao Tze steps back when Confucius proceeds

for aesthetics aren’t morals

when drifted apart by waters and wars

and morals are aesthetics

when suns set on rice fields.

 

Competitions

 

And shape isnot contents

when contents aren’t shaped

to bear ultimate consequences

of space and time

and finitudes of metaphysics

are far a way when large is large

and silence of physics (though)

is closer-by when Dao grows into Zen

to balance industry’s tendencies

of turning skies and polluting airs.

 

If both keep on being satisfied

by Christian emotions in grand majeur

of ongoing antecedents and startling

precedents of mysteries beyond

life and death man and computer

health and wealth fiction and friction

young and old--in capitalized

translucency’s dogmatricks.

 

Xanadu (Ofeliotfame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to ferry Taiwan - Okinawa)

 

(2)

 

Vertigo

Tribute to HK Skyline

 

postanalytical geometricks

in shivering lines and halting breadth

to reconstruct a newest threat

in-between vertigo and gravity

unto the 21st century

of strong men and weak buildings

portrayed by wu women from a distance wumen

of Chinese paintings

 

In Memory of the victims of Nine One One

 

Xanadu (Ofsengaifame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to An Chung Leung Joalin and Hong Kong Visual Arts Center)

 

(3)

 

Like (Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum)

 

like a towering bridge a medieval castle

an opaque pavilion loses his unusual transparence

to gravity of death and grievance

two heavy towers
aside bear a first roof

bear a second top roof featuring concrete slab

of four vertical signs featuring three arches

each holding two signs atop

telling heroic virtues transformed by SYS

into unification of a new China

 

like a three-eyed giant under a grand hat

two heavy towers his ears

signs of virtue his brows

four vertical signs his nose

too high if not flanked by two more eyes

in his forehead slanted like Buddha’s

(seemingly closed though they may seem open as well

like loopholes in a castle may--and in fact they are not)

mimicking and doubling Siva third eye

simulating and broadening Guanyin seated headdress

as its roof is as purple as many Buddhas' hairs

 

like a sleeping giant in a verdant mountain scape

in an exuberance of cypresses

(which trees are as individual

as human faces never may be again)--

China and Churchill unto eternity

 

hundreds of people mounting its stairs

(seventy meters and two hundred and ninety-two steps)

 

like a long beard to enter its huge mouth

and see his silent tongue by Paul Landowski

his uvula wherefrom signs are drawn

which float above his lips like balloons to a cartoon

 

two tripods tips of his Dali moustache

two Indian pillars his all-hearing ears

if not braids and twiggy tails of his Jewish mask

at first recognized again during visit of Kuomintang leader

to Xian terracotta warriors

 

sober (his shape) vibrant (his color)

empty (his face) lively (his green)

 

people like ants mounting to a fairy queen

 

Xanadu (Oftufufame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum Nanjing China)

 

(4)

 

Poetical Portrayal of Ryukyu Ware

Earthen Urus and Where Abouts of Ceramics 

 

deepest blue after memory of Tuthankamon Mask

about to disappear in palish daylights of beaming

spots on top of its roof waiting for modernity

to reveal its last secrets as latest news

to summer sons of Egypt and Okinawa

 

....

 

his yellowish eyes clownish to be disclosed in nights of ware

abouts and merry go-a-bouts as trance knights

of Bartezz and Green Greener Valleys--

it poses its unquestionable color like an axiom of mystery

and solemnity under gravity of lionish dragons in scary wings

 

....

 

it doesnot open its top to dreams of civilization

as its bluishness is deeper dark than ocean’s

and nearer than sky heights as it centers around

its calligraphic inscription (more like a scroll

than a carving) which reads like this and thus--

 

....

 

Xanadu (Ofryukyufame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Kingdom of Ryukyu Okinawa Japan Shakespeare

and e e cummings)

 

(5)

  

EYES WIDE OPEN (Pt II)

 

300,000 on a broken wall

soaring above a Rodinesque head

huge and soiled in giant pebbles

his deep wrinkles are like streams

of blood pouring down from his face

showing anguish and distress

if it isnot yet a death mask

just after execution--its eyes staring widely open

black and green--it is surreal;

disparaging gap between life and death

like a head beheaded after torture

like a face without arms.

 

Arm

 

Giant head and arm stick out of cobblestone earth

hand Michelangelesque bigger than arm

its fingers spread but each of them bowed

as meager and thin to show their phalanges clearly;

it nears to shape of bones, a skeleton--

a universal symbol of death--

flesh of arm seems to melt and liquidate down

around his elbow as if about to leave its bones

physically rather than metaphysically. 

 

Xanadu (Oftufufame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Memorial to the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre

Nanjing China and Wu Xianlin)

 

(6)

 

Parted by Two-eyes View

Young Smile Shy Eyes

 

Young smile

which broadens its cheeks a little

making them appear full without any wrinkles

mouth deeply red possibly a bit open

and if not rather fleshy lips;

 

seated high on open throne

subduing Madra mudra

right hand’s middle and ring fingers

pointing forwards;

 

front shape is partly hidden

behind hanging lamp that cuts its view

into two--having strength of deprivation

gain in an one-eye view

beyond coincidence and accident

surely meditating upon unchanging truths;

 

his smile draws a ring 'round mouth and chin

his eyes look staringly down as if embarrassed

gazing to where his feet would be

if he had stretched his legs fully out

as if it emphasizes happiness of his lotus seat

that fastens to a floor like a bud does to a flower

remaining independent of it at the same time--

large blue nimbus lining out all-known flames

and saintly figures to its borders;

 

when fall of lights draw a serious longitude to it

as shades of years and fears of wisdom

and his forward stare is blocked

into itself to gain solemnity

out of what like shyness could arise.

 

Xanadu (Oftufufame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Fai Lai Feng Peak Flying from Afar and

Lingyin Sours Retreat Temple Hangzhou China)

  

(7)

 

West Lake 

 

(i)

 

It lanes bridges
and causeways

lined by queues of tourists;

it still finds its history

in slightly and tightly sloping hills

in full and light and dark and empty green.

 

Ancient and modern boats floating around,

tourist pairs seated at roots of old trees

at feet of newly rebuilt ancient pagodas

when walking talking and sometimes reigning round--

raining and reigning ranging and deranging

hills trees pavilions and so on.

 

(ii)

 

West Lake Just Before Sunset

An Anglicism 

 

Long sunshine in quiet water

that colors blue and black

in rhythm of uncaused movements

shining from behind regular pines

reminding of leaves to a rose lotus

as the sloping hills do to female hips

for which metaphors the lake
is sad to be famous.

 

Willow’s extended branches fall far down

in young green and their lover seems to blown

all over the water;

pagoda huge as an oaken trunk

stands firmly among bushes of thorns

when the sun is about to turn yellow.

 

And hills off sun gain a misty foggy sight

of indefinite color inbetween darkly blue and green

slightly lit up to its outlines it shines lightly

in the sky that seems gray rather than blue.

 

Water is filled, covered by remainders of older days

waves as caused by many paddle boats

as whispers of unknown dangers spit up your ears--

 

Where the results are the lost moments

one is about to forget in daily life

and is used to enlarge and amplify in art--

if art is silence and life is business

and if it isnot just the other way around

‘round this lake of history and reconstruction.

 

(iii)

 

Night View (Night show

while sleeping among dwarfs

of towering concrete)

 

lines to edges of roofs of pavilions ... horizontals ...

lights lit to high-rises at shores ... verticals ...

 

as dim the perimeters as busy the ads

as silent the rooftops as pulsing the towers

as simple the pavilions as complex the city

 

as mysterious the lake as overt the town

 

as square the houses as straight the highway.

 

Xanadu (Oftufufame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Jay-Z and West Lake Hangzhou China)

 

(8)

 

Rather (Landscape in Verdant and Ocher)

Academic Criticisms Before and Beyond

 

chaotic variety of life rather than sameness

of directional flow of brush and hills

variety of texture of nature and rocks rather than statics in vitality

strong dramatization of mountains rather than silence of tiny figures

stuffy mountain ranges rather than airy valleys and ravines

busy and simple textures rather than complex and overcrowded volumes

 

showing psychological desolation rather than logical intensions

realities of brush rather than realism of nature

cravings of souls rather than diapositive carvings

expressionist mountain-and-water rather than impressionist bird-and-flower

Renaissance of Ming rather than Baroque of Qing

 

perspective of imaginary receding diagonals rather than stable one-and-only horizons

solemn and stirring mood rather than loneliness and grievance

plain truth of two dimensions rather than illusion of three-dimensionality

balance between fair and blackground rather than emphasis

of one over another, rule of either over or

 

latitude of individualism rather than alienation of freedom

 

--and Xanadu could go on for much longer--

 

Xanadu (Ofwangfame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Hong Kong Museum of Art Shanghai Library Wu Li 1704

Autumn Morning in the Mountain Lake Susan Bush Hsio-yen Shih

Richard Barnhart James Cahill George Rowley a/o)

 

(9)

 

Bountiful Harvest 

 

(I)

 

Girl rising up like Philippines to take a papaya

as from center of the universe if not cosmos

wherefrom sixteen branches reach out to their leaves

larger than papaya in darkish and light green

painting a near geometrical firmament under brownish brown

of modernist Trinity after and beyond Michelangelo

depicting God possibly in moderately long white beard

and monk clothes shared by two women who stretch out lengthy

in a straight horizon to utmost leftist and righteous

beyond the breadth of God's crucified arms and hands

spiritually and supernaturally without any trace of nails anymore

echoing both Noli Me Tangere and eradicate images and visions of the Holy Spirit.

 

Colors stay within boundaries of black and white

exemplifying earthy and natural green brown and yellow

and only some blue and gray to delineate sky and clouds

strongly stylized as with help of Art Nouveau curvilinear repetitive lines

(like hatching in a Galo Ocampo sketch)

strongly condensed as by lack of a perspectival background

in an tale without horizon or vanishing point

but the center of the universe itself in the bountiful harvest

of the horn of plenty of bananas pineapples corns squash

and foremost papaya--favorite signature of Bolong--

 

Renaissance vision in modernist techniques.

 

(II)

 

Rising like the Philippines in high thighs

and without any sign of feet or shoes

like a force of nature--an extension of nature’s giant powers

 

as rooted in traditional colors of rural work and manufacture--

Five stylized nymphs engaging in rural work

of making food plucking nuts preparing rice

five women and two men--one carrying bananas through the women

another waiting in a carriage cum karabaw of rice pals--

 

Conservative brown of ecclesiastical furniture

in S. Agustin Church from moldave to narra

nevertheless compact like a vision before and beyond nature

and naturalism to evoke a new reality

where also God emerges like an earthy natural power

though spiritual in details.

 

Xanadu (Ofrizalfame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to John 20:17 Victorio Edades Galo Ocampo Carlos Francisco

1935 Bountiful Harvest and Metropolitan Museum Manila Philippines)

 

(10)

 

Erasures

One More In-between                             

 

Nearly erased paintings

showing some sinuses only

beyond black and white

demonstrating smears of yellow

into brown unto blue;

airy ink and silky paper

reduced to earthly connotation

beyond painting and sculpture

transparence and opacity

deterioration of materials

unto essence of elements;

in between matter and minerals

in between accidents and chemicals

in between coincidence and structure

in between nature and culture

in between who and what

in between where and when

in between why and nill

falls art--

stating duration of marble

as blurrings oppose consistency

of this very presence moment

when soil signs time like a seal

beyond every precious second

for it is just what you see and bear

right now right here rightly how.

 

Xanadu (Ofsengaifame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Cy Twombly TS Eliot Fuzhou Marble Master-of-Nets Garden

Suzhou China and UNESCO)

  

(11)

 

King Prayer

 

Black and white visions of MLK

shouting speaking crying

prayer in Stars and Stripes

of devote open hands closed to

each other like eyes downwards

where a crucifix gravitates

towards eternity’s dark matter.

 

Xanadu (Ofbeardenfame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Alexander Austin his 1994 Spirit of the Dream

and Studio Museum Harlem NY NY)

 

(12)

 

Il Mosè--Semeiosis (Pt I)

Michelangelo in Vincoli

  

Some vessels from his chin down
constituting his long beard
under neatly short-cut head,
meticulously imitating arms,
fine folds in his drapery
unfolding just one knee;
hands--or only fingers--
might be too tall gripping
in lengths of heirs' hairs--
as in a Beatific Vision
sun beams yellow from front windows
grid an arbitrary free pattern on
the marble in this Old Sacristy,
as free as dusk and dawn
as free as summer and winter
as free as spring and autumn.

Index, icon or symbol--Nature impersonated-
-see the sun on his cheeks, his fore-
head, his skin, his dress--Shine!

 

Xanadu (Ofdantefame) for Dr Uplift (November 2005)

(Thanks to Michelangelo and his Moses in San Pietro in Vincoli Vatican City)

 

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