Literary Portraits, Censorship, and Free Thought

Sample excerpts from Literary Portraits

2012-02-04T10:01:00.000Z

Portfolio

It is with a warm thank you that I present these excerpts for your consideration and ask that you cast your thoughts to when you - just one time - decided that the risk of your self was worth it, for I truly have seen how exquisite a person can be. I am so assured that, if you appreciate the Work I present for the world's consideration, I would be honoured to here from you.

From "Drifted"

Your perfumed voice, spectral lips that part,

Softly through shivering woodlands;

The torture of the eyes, tears upon the tapis,

With you rising from the fibres like mourning mist;

The feeble frame, ghost-limbs which shudder,

Delicate in the breezes that disturb the vapours.

From "Faith"

Amerigo Vespucci, galleon skirting the wake,

Stores crumpling in to barren wombs,

Young hands desiccating in spray, sere flowers of autumn,

Drawing scabbards, plots in the thirsty hold;

Suddenly, though, the prow jolted, the land always was there.

From "Love You?"

I must then hurt always, doubting if again ever you will say,

Unable to understand you, save to love,

To be diminished without you;

For you, I made well known: I want to love you,

To lose my eloquence when you just swallow a cry.

From "November"

Barely a calendar visible for the overlaid grey

It is a statement of purpose--Arrogance breath through the dirt of gossamer sheets.

If, by chance, there is a God, He or She scorns the creatures indulging in the stupidity of bearing this

interim period, that between warmth and cold,

It reflects a butchers' past of starved children, the discards of dementia and portentous aristocracy.

What is the reason for persisting, for now

Is disproved the crucible theory that divers human elements can be mixed into new, it is a society

bereft of wholeness, instead one of yoked pariahs,

Outcasts touching with scabbed shoulders, happily hating.

We are like Ishmael's brother calculating against the other,

Such that in our spite we ensure none can escape.

From "Portrait of the Artist as Wise Fool"

Such stainless satire is it that the defamed apostle must give,

To those who turned him away at the gate.

From "Silent Thoughts"

Now I must hold up a mirror,

To see what you've in me become;

Am I the first to be inside your perpetual twilight?

Because there you are only in the pre-dawn?

For luxuria shrivels in the severity of Grey:

Passion draws on the diversity of humankind.

From "The Next Day"

I come to you who had discarded me,

Teach that which I must know, the white is too strong;

Although my talons equal yours, mine are for your telling,

Teach me your guile, which discounts the necessity of contrition;

Literary Portrait Magazine?

2012-02-04T09:59:00.003Z

What say you?

The Literary Portrait hopes to provide a venue - not online but in print - for Poets interested in Real Persons and Dangerous Subjects... Given the reality of censorship and the chill of libel laws, however, ours is a dangerous discipline. Our stance on censorship is as follows: "Your work will be appreciated for its artistic merit not its subject. NOTHING is is to be excluded from Art, no claim of fact, no point of view, no inhibited thought."

Open Letter - Poetic Forms - the Literary Portrait

2012-02-04T09:57:00.000Z

Dear Inquirer
To me life's greatest sadness is that EVERYONE is unique but so few believe.
You are one. There's nobody like you - never was & never will be again. Both religion and science agree. My work shows it to be true.
Helping you to realise the fact there's only you is my job - not yours.
It doesn't matter what anyone's ever told you. If they've said you're nothing special, please know that this comes from a darkened heart who wanted to extinguish that precious light that was you. We need to re-ignite what was extinguished and to increase the intensity of who you are.
At some point in your life there was a time, even if just once - please cast you mind back - to where you were absolutely open with someone else - see the objects, inhale the scents of that moment, tilt your head to the sounds.
Together, if you're open to talking, to pushing through from maybe pain to relief, and engaging me in the same honest way, we can find all those little things that have made you so perfectly you.
And the uniquely you is what will determine what goes on the page, into the book, into the archive and what future generations will always remember when they see your name and call on the memory of your life.

FAQ Literary Portraits

2012-02-04T09:55:00.003Z

Will I really be immortalised?
Much more than most celebrities, an emphatic yes.
Celebrity is of the moment, where the works of select artists have longevity beyond a collective memory of the current generation.
I ask: who ever is remembered? Unless we're heads of state, royalty or saints, few of our names will be read a generation after our death. However, art can be forever. Before you object to ask how I know I'll be remembered, I direct your thoughts to the reality that anyone who is THE FIRST is always remembered. Everyone remembers the first man on the moon and his famous quote, but not the second chap. Vindex created a new art form, a totally new genre of poetry when it was falsely thought the advent of Free Verse spelled the demise of invention with words. Literary Portraiture is the first of its kind. I am the first poet to use it.
And so a thousand years from now in café's, library's, bedroom's and Ivy League universities, LP will be studied and recited and your name and uniqueness remembered.
Generations of your future family, should you have one, will research their ancestors, and when your name is found, so too will the LP. That's the eternity of being
Is this all confidential?
Entirely. We both sign a contract that your name isn't associated with the work until after BOTH our deaths.
Vindex also has an Enhanced Security Disclosure, which helps provide you the secure knowledge that he is able to work with even the most vulnerable populations.
Why do you guard your identity so carefully?
If everyone recognised me, it would be nearly impossible to meet people on their own terms. What I mean is I need to be able to continue finding new life roles to expand my understanding; being a visible celebrity would hamper my personal growth.
Am I unique enough for LP?
Yes, Yes & Yes! Don't believe a word anyone has ever told you that you're somehow ordinary. I've never met nor composed a Portrait for person who wasn't unique. Typically people who have experienced a life pain are more aware of their uniqueness and so it's often easier to get to the root of a person. But that doesn't mean that a person with very little pain in their life is anything other than precious too. If you let me and are open to the experience, we can find these beautiful aspects together.
What kind of name is Vindex? Is that your real name?
No. The name not only protects my identity and that of my clients, but the name reflects my art as something that enervates, or brings a more rich appreciation of life. Where many art tries to encapsulate, mine is driven by an attempt to free and sketch the moment.
Why are you suddenly doing this for the public?
Because there are so many of you who deserve as much as my other clients. The main difference is there's no payment and the copyright remains with me. The second difference is that these works will be made public but with a false name to protect your identity unless you decide to disclose it.
As long as I or you are alive, no one will ever associate you with any given poem.
Why won't you disclose your client list?
Not only have we (artist and subject) both legally bound ourselves not to reveal one another, part of the idea of drawing the essence of a person to create a precious sculpture in words. This means we're presenting very private moments. These moments are to be kept private until after both my and the subject's death. As some of my clients are of some financial means, this ensures that no one gathers information that could be used to trace and ferret out aspects of their lives that could be potentially damaging if some nefarious malefactor decided to be less than scrupulous for personal gain.
Is the process enjoyable? Dangerous?
What is your background?
Vindex experiences in work and in life are varied. For more please click here.
What will the work look like?
Every work is different. Some are in a free verse style, others in strict meter and rhyme. Others address the subject, while still others act as a sketch of inner landscape. Every person's uniqueness determines the style of the poem. As well, some people have one work written about them while others a series. So it would be unfair to generalise or predict. Please see the Portfolio section for an idea of the kind of work that may be produced.
Did you really invent the genre?
Yes. There is 1 antecedent poetic form, 1 prose and 1 for visual art.
The poetic form is the Dramatic Monologue whereby the poet impersonates an individual and speaks through that persona to another imagined recipient of the speech. The subject of the poem is the speaker and we learn about the speaker through what is and is not said.
The prose form of the Character Sketch simply draws a biographical paragraph or more about a character. Children are often asked to do this as an exercise in school to gain a better sense of how an author draws a fictional character.
The visual art for is the Portrait, which draws from the image of a subject and portrays them visually. The portrayal could be realistic, impressionistic, or anything the artist decides between these two poles.
The Literary Portrait thus stands alone among the genres. LP may engage in dialogue like the Dramatic Monologue, but attempts to render a person's unique essence onto the page, allowing the subject to inform the form. So both physical and psychological characteristics may be used. The goal then isn't to know someone from the outside such as in Visual Portraiture, nor to mentally visualise a subject speaking as if the reader is in the room where the Monologue is taking place. A successful LP aims to elicit in a reader a reactive knowledge that says not only does the reader know the subject but can readily imagine being the subject. This is an "I am you" experience, a genuine moving of one person into another, fully, without hindrance, a complete sharing of being.

The Literary Portrait explained

2012-02-04T09:55:00.000Z

"With the immortality of the person as its goal, we need to get to the essence of someone by whatever authentic means - with all their majesty and rawness - so that the 'who you are' can guide the pencil, to use the artist as a conduit for determing what shape the sculpture takes, because to do this with honesty and openness ensures that forever will others gaze upon the subject as one to be remembered."

In the Literary Portrait the subject's emotions and unique experiences are rendered.

The Literary Portraits Tradition - The filidhean of Ireland

2011-05-29T20:51:00.000+01:00

The Filidh were one of the druidic classes who were hugely influential in pre-Christian Ireland. For Poets, they form a template of courageous rebels who bowed to neither peasant nor king. The source of Filidh power was the will to 'free speech' even if it repulsed the sensitivities of others. Filidh didn't bow to the pressure to be silent. In fact they 'satirised' their targets with grandiose acts that revealed private facts the target would prefer kept secret.

The Poet who has the courage to engage in the Literary Portrait must have that same unbending will of our ancestors, to pursue the uncovering of the nasty truths that if unchallenged would bend the world in ways we can see will bring illness to society or self.

Be strong and publish.

Defamation and Fiction and Poetry - Stealing the Epitaph

2011-05-29T20:41:00.000+01:00

Can you defame? Absolutely not.

Can you defame? Absolutely yes.

It isn't a question of legality - because clearly you can't maliciously attack a private citizen. Let the statute of limitations do it for you ... by running out.

Attorney on USA Law- 2011

Sure you can go through the hoops of disguising a person to the point of missing the entire target, which is hardly the artistic goal for a Literary Portrait.

So here's my advice. Do it but don't circulate it! Take your copies, publish them with ISBN's and stick them in the archives at the Library of Congress.

One day in the future some perky literature student will stick it online. And forever your target will be searched on the Internet as the fool they were in life ... not as they wished to be remembered.

It's not revenge if it's the truth.

Why

2011-05-22T12:03:00.001+01:00

I'm not an idealogue but a collector of unique experiences, perceptions and warnings. Some people explore locales. I explore roles in life. I want to know what it is to be YOU.

Mountains and lakes exhibit variety. Of what is verifiable today, only human beings are individually unique in a way that we can transfer one another in symbols such as verbal language.

And I assume that you reached the page by accepting the fact that what you expect to read may offend and perhaps disturb you.

Maybe.

But it is at least real. Suspend judgment and open to the new. Let the collision of opposites pry you open