Trust Lust

 

Above all, there was behind them the largest version of
    A Nude Descending The Heights of Orgasm,
an Odalisque with an updated hairdo and contour,
in Eastmancolor now after years of gradual fading due to
    bright lights beamed on it.
Even while painted over several times by the sheen of
    delicate enamel,
paintings do grow old though their subjects be eternal.
From here I can see its glow, almost white (with vague
    lines) from the lights' attending to it.

Secondly, I see them frontally, there seated abstractly,
masturbating each other perhaps, man to woman,
woman to man, woman to woman, man to man,
man to two women, I don't know. Their hats
on, as if to hide their identities 19th-century-
fashion, this is probably London, with an
Indian there somewhere, standing, the waiter?
the owner? turbaned beyond distinct identification,
anyway, maybe this is just a costume night, even
though the wall painting there has an art-deco frame.

Thirdly. From here I see their lines, their shapes, suspect
to my eyes blinded by the klieg lights, & thus can't
know if that protruding thing down there on the floor
is a chair's metal wheel bar or a shiny penis, it is
as if this is all a contour drawing of a porn star
who can't see his spectators while performing. Fuck!

The fact that I'm facing them cannot guarantee answers.
And because I just work here I don't ask any questions.
I'm living the life of a restorer of the time-honored art
    of lovers.

 

 

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This poem was inspired by an artpiece by the American painter of "exuberantly humorous and often erotic figure and still-life pictures," William N. Copley (signed his work "Cply"), which appeared on page 24 of the March 1995 issue of Artforum Magazine. My poem's title was the title of the 1995 CPLY retrospective in Hannover.
    More lines from the Tate Gallery website: "Cply is also well-known as a collector and patron of Surrealist works. He was encouraged to paint by Man Ray, Max Ernst, and Marcel Duchamp and had his first one-man exhibition at Roger's Bookshop, Los Angeles, USA, in 1946. He operated his short-lived Copley Galleries at Beverly Hills 1947-8, dealing works by Joseph Cornell, Ernst, Rene Magritte, Matta, and Tanguy. He lived in France 1951-63, exhibiting widely as a painter, and created the William and Norma Copley Foundation in 1954 to assist creative painters, sculptors and composers. He moved to New York in 1963."

 

 

 

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.

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