Tags
2022, 6*, being, British Museum, enslavement, Greece, Have, history, identity, inner-self, mirror, outside, samsara, society, time, tragedy, war, woman
mirror
we lift
whole armies of chariot, arm and thigh –
scalloped handle either side –
to nichèd or columned view
asymmetrical
grotesquery
and for
thousands of years now
we see through eyes
polished and weighty above our heads
the extent of all our
inwardly estate
I was struck by a caption by a mirror from the ancient Greek section of the British Museum which explained that rich women were not able to own any land, but that they could display their wealth in their own domestic environment and self-presentation
————w(O)rmholes________________________________|—–
being & identity wormhole: ‘the practice …’
Have & samsara wormhole: travel // when I die
history wormhole: ‘from the cathedral window two stories / high …’
mirror wormhole: The Atlantic City Convention: 1. THE WAITRESS by William Carlos Williams
society wormhole: Candaka
time wormhole: ‘‘in my car I pass…’
war wormhole: riders of the night
woman wormhole: YOUNG WOMAN AT A WINDOW by William Carlos Williams
mlewisredford 
What I experience with this poem is the painful….near-militarism of women displaying their “grotesquery” ( what an amazing word coin!), as they look into the depths of their own eyes in the mirror. Is the mirror as gilded as these women?
And they are observing not only their(selves) in this reflection but the “nichèd or columned view” that serves as the backdrop for their own returned gaze.
“the extent of all our….inwardly estate” is poignant and painful to read. This strikes a note of a feminist morality tale, where scorn and opprobrium are cast upon an ancient society.
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written by Mark Redford; read by Holly Lofgreen
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