In her beautifully crafted blog, Shawna Lemay has explored the nature of social portraiture, the nature of the selfie and the medium that gallerizes all of it. This small poem owes its inspiration (such as it is) to several posts from Transactions with Beauty.
Varieties of Dignity
“…the million-petaled flower of being here.” – Philip Larkin
You see them here, on these things called platforms.
Them? I mean our photographs, all our selves in repose,
at repast, in replays of holidays, getaways, birthdays,
sharing our pets, our haircuts, our pets’ haircuts.
And all the ways we pose for the world — withholding,
revealing, our mannered forms of ill-manner,
our outrage, tact, deference, brass,
our misery, joy, our heart’s geography —
are really just us,
in our varieties of dignity.
So this is me, saying,
I see you in your wicker chair,
under languid light at the edge of the lawn,
raising your evening glass of wine.
And this is me beneath a tilted moon,
blue-checked cotton against my skin,
made-quiet by the art of a mist-clad night,
made-silent at seeing your self-in-silhouette —
these loose and brief connections,
like silken awns soon torn from the cob of corn,
yet nonetheless real.
Tell the ages! At this place, on this time, in this year,
we were here.
“. . .varieties of dignity”, while including both pretensions and contingent aspirations,
(perhaps because of) facilitate “connections” nonetheless. Thanks, Steve, for this stimulating reflection!
Beautifully put Ike! Thank you!
I feel you.
Our heart’s geographies… our outrage, our misery, our joys.
Thank you Adela.
Oh Stephen, you have such a gift. I am just scribbling in comparison.
Dear gracious Ana Lisa, thank you, and I hardly think so.
Connections encouraged by Varieties of Dignity as being “…like silken awns soon to be torn from the cob of corn, yet non-the-less real.” are very special, realizing these connections to be nanoseconds of awareness in the scale of Universe time.
Thanks Raymond, “…nanoseconds of awareness,” like that. Thanks as always for your expansion.
Loved the idea of varieties – as a contrast and a challenge to all of the “norming that we need to counter…
Thanks for that Sam.