(The guard's hand in front of my camera to block the shot)
Finally saw the Cindy Sherman exhibition today. It felt
good to be in another museum space -- other than where
I work. And it felt good to look and listen. I admire
Sherman's determination to construct personas so fully.
She is immersed in the drama of her characters. I was moved
by that, by all the women she becomes. And yet there she is,
under the makeup and costumes, her face. I've been playing
around in my own writing recently with personas. A series
seems to be developing. Mother of warriors poems.
I'm going through an anthology of war poetry, reading randomly
and then writing a poem in response. Without planning
the poems have been in the voice of or from the perspective of
the mother of the soldier speaker or subject of the poem
from the anthology. To do this is to take on the face of that other.
Not only the face but the sound. To write in a different
octave or scale, or say as a soprano rather than alto, if that makes
sense. I think I'd like to see the Sherman before it closes, soon
unfortunately. There's more for me to learn. Of course.
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