poetry

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Poetry Pole Skull

Edith Mirante goes beyond simply displaying her skull painting, she also seeks to enhance your skull. Read on...

"Here's a picture of the poetry pole my husband & I put up in front of our house in Portland, Oregon. I painted the literary skull with crossed pens and the lettering. The box has featured poems by poets including Matthew Dickman, Robert Lowell, and Theodore Roetke. It has photocopies of the poems for passersby to take. We tend to offer poems with themes of nature and decay, and we change them when we remember to."

This is WON-DER-FUL! Edith and her husband are getting superliminal with their message by taking it to the street. Increase your skull's power by sharing your favorite knowledge. I love what you've done here, Edith. Thanks for sharing it!

Friday, January 28, 2011

[BONUS] Skull Poetry

I'd like to take a moment to introduce something a bit different than our usual world of visual skull creativity here on Skull-A-Day. Poet Kim Roberts just shared this piece with me and gave me permission to pass it along to you. It appears in her Pearl Poetry Prize winning book Animal Magnetism...

THE SKULL OF JOHANN GASPAR SPURZHEIM (1776-1832)
The Warren Anatomical Museum, Harvard University, Boston

Spurzheim’s skull
                       is sliced through the brow,
           completely around,

a perfect cap, then bisected
                       down the middle.
           If you put hinges on either side,

above where he once had ears,
                       you could open him up
           like a treasure box.

Spurzheim made a study of brains,
                       an atlas of 36 “organs”
           (Amativeness, Veneration, Marvellousness)

which controlled morality and intellect.
                       His brain, one of the heaviest
           ever recorded,

would have been a source of pride
                       if he only had known.
           He got so much wrong.

Tell me: is a life wrestling
                       with a single misguided theory
           a wasted life?

The brain is indeed
                       a treasure box:
           a little space here for perception,

an area there for volition,
                       a communications center,
           a music box

with gears and flywheels,
                       a pirouetting ballerina.
           The skull is a beautiful receptacle

and Spurzheim’s skull,
                       held upright
           on a pronged stand,

shelved behind a plate of glass,
                       a slice of history,
           glows.