Sexy And Indulgent Poem by gershon hepner

Sexy and indulgent about art,
escaping burdens of poetic paradox,
I try to run away from what is orthodox,
interpreting all beauty with a heart
not foreskinned, but excited by the passion
of paintings, sculpture, poetry and all
expressions of the spirit that enthrall
me, and create me in artistic fashion.

Inspired by a poem by Geoffrey Hill, from “The Songbook of Sebastian Arrurruz, ” discussed by Vincent Sherry in “The Uncommon Tongue”. In a way I am the opposite of Hill:

I imagine, as I imagine us,
Each time more stylized lovingly
Detailed, that I am not myself,
But someone I might have been: sexless,
Indulgent about art, relishing, Let us say, the well schooled
Posture of St. Anthony or St. Jerome,
Those peaceful hermaphrodite dreams
Through which the excess of memory
Pursues its own abstinence.

© 2008 Gershon Hepner 8/21/08