Seven/Seven

Poetry-Free-For-All is getting people to write seven poems in seven days, starting on the seventh of the month, i.e. this Friday. It is a week-version of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWrMo), in which you write a poem a day for 30 days. Seven seems like a good distance to me, to write at full stretch, and it gives three weeks for rest and recovery before the next race. Seven is such a potent figure too, inspiring all kinds of magic and myth. 

I plan to write "Seven Studies for a Self-Portrait." Each study will be written after a well-known self-portraitist. That "after" is very open. My seven masters will be Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Vincent van Gogh, Egon Schiele, Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, and Yasumasa Morimura. Rembrandt and van Gogh are obvious suspects; the others came to me as I googled the net. I did not know Morimura's appropriation art till this morning, and he seems to make a good endpoint since he photographs himself in the garb and posture of iconic Western artists (including Kahlo) and actors. 

The names of the Seven give me my sound palette: du, rem, go, schiel, ka, war, mo. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
7=days of creation, spectrum, gifts of the Holy Ghost (Biblical), mutability (Spencer), union of 3 /Mind) and 4/Matter (Pythagoras), regeneration via the spirit (Christian), the sword/love brotherhood (Kabbalah), Eros/love (Kabbalah, sphere of Netzach), purity (Levitical tradition).

Sounds a good challenge: I might have a go.
5:11 PM
Jee Leong said…
I must brush up on my Kabbalah! I hope you will join in the fun.
8:15 PM
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