Saturday, April 7, 2018

THE PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG WOMAN



The Portrait of a Young Woman

There is something about your gaze
Your direct gaze
Confrontational
As if accusing the one held in your gaze

This gaze was not for women
Not so long ago
We were told to drop our eyes
In submission

You hold a mask
Perhaps the makeup mask
You apply
Don’t be caught dead
Wearing your own face

Or is it a mask for another
For a party or a ball
The night is dark
You a reverse shadow
Your gaze holds my own

April 7, 2018

Camera FLASH! ~ The April Edition

It is time to strike a pose again. Here is your photographic challenge for the April 30 Poems in 30 Days Challenge. In honour of this occasion, I am featuring two portrait shots. Please feel free to use one now and one later in the month, when the muse has been exhausted.

Adolph de Meyer (1927) Advertisement for Elizabeth Arden Cosmetics, Fair Use






10 comments:

Ellecee said...

She is a mystery isn't she. I like the way you have described her gaze and your questioning. I especially like your line
"Don’t be caught dead Wearing your own face" How many women still fear this? Hopefully not us :-)

Kerry O'Connor said...

Don’t be caught dead
Wearing your own face...

Very insightful description of this portrait of so-called beauty.

Anonymous said...

Such a striking portrait. Such a strikingly odd advertisement. And it has a very particular effect, even for as straightforward and "in your face" - but there is something so subtle and complex about it too. And it's a subterfuge-energy - directed/misdirected.

So when I read your lines:
Don’t be caught dead
Wearing your own face

I think oh yes, this is the absolute essence distilled right down. A high priced perfume. What a price to pay.

Other Mary said...

Outstanding write. So fitting for the image.

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Ooh I love this especially; "Don’t be caught dead wearing your own face."

Jim said...

Sooo sad, all the waste behind that mask. Beauty, intelligence, healthy spirits, and much much more that could be released. Did David's wife, Bathsheba, King Solomon's wife, have a mask to remove? She has scared the bejeebers out a third of the men in the world for ages now.
..

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I relate to keeping one's eyes downcast. I spent years doing that way back.......also relate to hiding behind a makeup mask, which I did for some years till I got over it. LOL.

kaykuala said...

Your direct gaze
Confrontational
As if accusing the
one held in your gaze

Sometimes one just can't help but show a front. Yes annell, it is often a wise strategy.


Hank

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

Probing questions ... but perhaps she is unwilling to answer (for whatever reason) else why the mask in the first place?

Anonymous said...

I agree that this line of enquiry sits perfectly with the image you chose.

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