PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

[to Patriciajj---Poet, Mentor, Il Niglior Fabbro---

I dedicate my first speculative poem of 2021]

Thank you for inquiring about my work; and

be assured, you are most welcome here in the

Cerulean Gallery.  No one is admitted to my

studio---the cluttered appearance of that

room is not just presentable (although some

consider this an offensive eccentricity on

my part)---but Honorable Ceruleanite's

display gallery (housed in this large chamber

called. in the archispecs, the "drawing 

room"; I love that pun)  is always open to you:

with personal favorites among my works

presented.  You have come well credentialed,

among the many undergraduate students

I have met, and highly recommend by your

instructors.  They tell me that both of you

express the ambition to paint, artistically, not

just academically, and that is very applaudable

(far too many critics, on all of the worlds, have

done much to restrict and repel the influence of

art, in all of its manifestations, among the stars.

Instruments of the art are handled, as deftly by

tentacles as by the apparatus of limbs; and you

should not consider your own perspectives as

less valid because you do not walk or stand upright.

Let no inhibitive dustshard or senescent old prude

discourage you from the joy of your creativity.

Here is my very first effort---when I hovered on the

cusp of amateurism, having not yet sold any item in

order to be considered a professional:  Far,

Magenta Horizon On  Ballardiana 1 In The 

Nu Epsilon Upsilon System.  Beside it is the

mythological Rings Of Saturn, Seen From Uranus---

both planets much mentioned in the Externality's

Colloquy of most ancient, and official,

records; but never successfully located (some

persons, myself among them, believe---on faith,

without objective evidence---that some Poet

planted these references only to achieve a

certain kind of verisimilitude; or in a rather

smug smirk of wry humor).  And around this

corner, are two of my own personal favorites---

both of which have been mentioned most

superlatively in newly revised collegiate

textbooks---Optimal Approach To Constellated

Orion and Congregation Of Stars That Have

Assembled In And For Choir.  I have been very

much privileged to have received several

commissons for portraits, first and foremost

among them, as is fitting, is our absent host's

closest interstellar colleague, and lifelong friend,

The Honorable Consultor  And Poet, Jearim  Jeruel

During The Sessions At System Carinae and,

beside it, one of his colleagues, The Plenipotentiary,

Achenar, Of  The Theta Eridani System.   If you will

follow me into this dedicated alcove:  here are

several of the series considered, by some (and by

myself as well) to be the centerpiece of my entire

collected work, Prospects Of The Blueshift's Levels---

numbers eight, twelve, nineteen, and twenty-seven.

Behind that door, which will only be opened to certain

selected visitors given entrance by inclusive consent

only, will be the series which I am completing now.

You do not err in asking about its content, and that

you have frame-phrased your interrogatory in the

Seventh Grammar of Courteous Query assures me that

your maturity, and the emotional level of your

appreciation suffices to obtain an answer here and,

perhaps, after the final preparations, a viewing

opportunity as well.  I have always believed that

human beings (that all too rare species that arose, the

Poets tell us, on a mythical, but insignificant, planet that

orbited a minor star never chartable) are the most

perfect examples and bearers of vivified beauty in the

entire vastness of the cosmos.  One of the most ancient

Poets whose name we know only as Sundial (and

considered to be a contemporary of both Homer and . . .

what was the other one's name . . . oh, yes, Star-Led;

yes, part of that protion of History we barely understand):

Sundial wrote a series of poems he called Exquisiteness of

Eclogues---about two human males, adolescents, whom

he described as stunningly beautiful in appearance:  in an

almost epic catalogue, he describes the slender

masculinity of their bodies, nuanced by the subtle

femininity of their long hair (said to be metallic blue),

their delicate facial features, and their demonstrative

gestures.  Their skin he has told us, is golden tan or

coppery brown; with a tuft of dark softness and a

lavender sprout (the pleasure tracer, he named it,

most often in association with that unknown term,

frottage---which may, perhaps, be a good subject for

explicative attempt in one of your reseach papers).

Their naked anatomy is both a delight and a difficulty to

depict; in that, I do not exaggerate in the least.  But the

most challenging, I have learned (from both eager and

frustrated experience), segment of the project is the

presentation of the stockings that, so the Poet wrote,

they enjoyed with the most intensified delight:

the same color as their waist-length tresses, perfectly

translucent to the light---utterly, absolutely sheer---

except for the softly opaque doubled weave at their

heels and toes.  Each appearance of their stockings

will be exactly consistent, in my respect of the

Poet's verbal imagination:  but their garter belts will,

alternately, feature each hue in the local rainbow.

Agile, adroit, and gracilious---not bulgingly or

boisterously mutated like the lifters of weights in

all eras---they will represent, among my entire

sequence of work---the epitome of vital pulchritude.

Saying that, I shall thank you for your attentiveness:

please feel free to examine my paintings as

closely and as for as long as you desire.  I believe the

Externatropes have granted you unlimited travel and

visitation permissives for just that exact purpose.

Starward