I liked that, too, Bill. But, as you sort of gave away, the poem may be time-bound; it's so of this moment in pop culture. Will the phenomenon continue with newer tech? Will the fad just disappear? I tend to agree with your analysis, but also feel that that is what it is...
Doug
On Nov 12, 2013, at 2:46 PM, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> one of your best, Bill…
> I specially like:
>
> enduring still-
> ness long enough for their faces to break
>
> into something real, despite themselves.
>
> Max (after breakfast Wed morning and taking dogs out in rain)
>
> On 13/11/2013, at 6:59 AM, Bill Wootton wrote:
>
>> Selfies
>>
>> A singular pursuit: snapping yourself.
>> No partner, no friend, no family member
>> to do the business for you.
>>
>> What if someone calls, mid-selfie?
>> What's the protocol? Do protocols
>> apply to yourself alone?
>>
>> In common with all photos, the selfie
>> confirms: you were ideed there,
>> like that, in that moment.
>>
>> The difference, not so much contrived
>> awkwardness, as sudden need for
>> self-celebration, then approbation.
>>
>> The urge to post, to feel the Like,
>> not new of course; Frida Kahlo,
>> in oils, paved a way for selfers.
>>
>> Adopting a pose the first duty
>> according to Wilde, the second
>> the stumbling block. It took Warhol
>>
>> to expose step two: filmed celebrities
>> and Factory nobodies alike, enduring still-
>> ness long enough for their faces to break
>>
>> into something real, despite themselves.
>> What do giddy selfies reveal? Self-Officer,
>> arrest that still face. Guilty as charged.
>
Douglas Barbour
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Art is always the replacing of indifference by attention.
Guy Davenport
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