Progression

 

1967

Mistress of his house, the good doctor
adjourns all mendicancy of the spirit

as he stands before a detail from a
composite lifetime achievement, his
antiques collection.

                                                        Portraits mainly
of people beyond me, and landscapes
beyond us all, frames as valuable
to a forest as the pictures were
to a soul, these are the fragments
of a distinguished fine culture.

But what about the metalworks
of religious icons and angels,
or pictures of heroes, the gold
in virgin maries; historical events
in oil journalistically collected
with the ivory tusks of elephantine
gildings. And there are also
Picassos, prints from a generation,
and curtains that once belonged
to a fired-up nation. They are
all here, signifiers to a signification

presently lost on us by the idea
of collecting.
                                            History the husband,
the good doctor stands as the
mistress of his house, wifeless.

The life in each item photographed
with a shine, but lifeless. Useless.

 

1997

The good doctor had better built a sanatorium.
The ancestral achievement now rests in a museum.

 

 

 

Copyright © 1999, 2004 Vicente-Ignacio Soria de Veyra. All rights reserved. Readers are welcome to view, save, file and print out single copies of this webpage for their personal use. No reproduction, display, performance, multiple copy, transmission, or distribution of the work herein, or any excerpt, adaptation, abridgment or translation of same, may be made without written permission from the author. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this work will be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

HIT YOUR BROWSER'S "BACK" BUTTON TO GO BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS