Friday, January 08, 2010

Eyes of Stone

art by gex78.deviantart.com



I am not watching you
with my eyes of stone
set in my face of glass
somewhere to the north
of my heart
of metal

it is pointless to run
with the electrons
through this forest
of wired thoughts
it will get you nowhere
nowhere closer
to what you think
what you hope
you can find
behind
this façade

I am always
a stranger
there is no danger
of love
in my eyes of stone
this flesh
is only a mask
for my plastic
soul

24 comments:

the walking man said...

If the soul be plastic
then I will caress
the flesh covering,
gently,
warmly
'til it
melts,
puddles,
mingles
with my own
beating heart.

As one,
in calm peace
we will re-form thought
to it's natural state.

Bernita said...

Geese, you are both brilliant!

Karen said...

Vesper - You don't post often, but when you do!!! The thing I love about sci-fi is that while people think of it as farthest-out fiction, it is often about ethics and the importance of sentience in all forms. Having said that, your "setting" for this, is outstanding in terms of defining the human condition - the eyes of stone, face of glass, and heart of metal evoking such comparisons with the human emotions.

Favorite lines:

"It is pointless to run
with the electrons
through this forest
of wired thoughts"

"I am always
a stranger
there is no danger
of love"

The eyes of stone and the plastic soul say so much.

Really love this!

Charles Gramlich said...

Makes me think of the cult of celebrity. Wonderful words.

BernardL said...

Neat picture and great accompanying tune.

Akasha Savage. said...

That was excellent Vesper. I love your poetry. xx

Nevine Sultan said...

Very to the point message, this was, Vesper. And I could hear the voice... plasticy and steely (if there are such words)... and very scary. I enjoyed this completely!

Nevine

Wanderlust Scarlett said...

Excellent. So very well written! Always!

I know this guy... by the way. Very well. I know some women like that, too...


Scarlett & Viaggiatore

Fireblossom said...

No shortage of famous plastic-souled folk out there today. As someone already said, it's always a treat when you let us see some of your unique and imaginative writing, Vesper!

xo

FB

K.Lawson Gilbert said...

ooooo - perfect, really, perfect!!! You tapped into a great idea here and followed through so artfully. What a great flourish that last paragraph offers us. And isn't it ironic how a robot (android) and a human seem that they could speak the same lines. Very fascinating and skillfully written!! One of my favs!

Rick said...

So frighteningly real and compelling, Vesper. I loved the foreboding future pressing in on us as we read this piece. May I compliment you on your increasing scope and mastery of this element?

Catherine Vibert said...

Vesper, since I've been painting masks lately, this piece has particular meaning to me. Just excellent my dear. I think we do feel this way at times, and we have also felt that others wore this particular mask. It's a painful one for everyone tho, despite the feeling of stone, metal and plastic and other nonfeeling things. Awesome imagery and metaphor.

laughingwolf said...

'resistance is futile...'

well penned, v

word verif: horsessi

Aniket Thakkar said...

You rock!

"plastic soul" would stay with me for a long time. Your words back to ya "Give me good sci-fi and you've won me"! :D

L.A. Mitchell said...

I wonder which came first...the poem or the art. Deliciously dark, Vesper :)

Rick said...

Hello again, Vesper! Just wanted to stop by for a sec and say thanks for your constructive help in looking over the excerpts from the first draft of my novel. It was a tremendous help, and, it warms up the place.

The romantic query letter and the happy-ever-after said...

So long as you are not a stranger to yourself. I like your words and your execution.
Warm regards,
Simone

Vesper said...

Oh, Mark, thank you. The perfect human answer…

Bernita!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Karen, if only you could see my smile… Thank you for such an outstanding analysis and for your wonderful soul… :-)

Thank you, Charles! It’s fascinating, I find, to see the many different ways in which it “speaks” to those who read it.

Thank you, Bernard. :-) The tune came first, but I love the pic…

Akasha, you’re so kind… Thank you! :-)

Nevine, I’m so pleased that you liked this… Thank you! :-)

Ah, Scarlett, you’re always so kind. Thank you. Many of us, I think, if not there already, are becoming like that…

Fireblossom, indeed…. And thank you for such wonderful words of praise. I’m not so sure I deserve them…
xoxoxo

Oh, Kaye, I feel so humbled… Now I’m pretty sure I don’t deserve this! :-) :-) :-) Nevertheless it pleases me greatly and I thank you for this.

Rick, you’re so sweet… Thank you! :-) The future is here…
And there’s no need to thank me for reading your work. It’s always my pleasure… :-)

Dear Cat, your masks paintings are fantastic. And, I think, we all wear the masks, more or less subtly. Thank you for your kind words.

Thank you, LW! :-) I’m not even sure we’re resisting…

Aniket, you too! :-) :-) :-)

Thanks, L.A. ! The words were first. I searched hard for that image to go with them and now I like it so much, I’m thinking it deserves a story by itself.

Simone, but we are strangers to ourselves even, sometimes, aren’t we? Thank you for stopping by and for your kind words.

Everybody, I wrote this at the request of a friend who makes music and wanted a text for his latest project. He told me how he sat at a shopping mall one day and how he began to notice how detached people have become, how they just sit and stare at the new technology in their hands and press buttons on their Blackberrys....how they don't even notice “a fellow bearded long haired humorous human being three feet away”...how we have become invisible obstacles on the text highway.... He thought he could do a song or an entire album on how aloof society has become, on how the world is getting colder in that respect and on how people are in fact detached while they connect only with permeated electronic signals…
So, I wrote these lyrics for him…

SzélsőFa said...

I am great to have read all the way down to the comments Vesper, so that I was able to read you explanation.
this poem is a very realistic description. it fits the theme your friend wanted to dissect in his musical piece. i wish you both success in this project.

Catherine Vibert said...

Vesper, I just saw you at K's place and thought, geeze where has Ms. Vesper been to! So I clicked over here and read the comments to see what you said all those weeks ago, and found your explanation and thought, yes! We are WAY TOO ADDICTED to electronica. I'm glad I came back to read that.

I know you are not getting around much, but do come by and enter my contest to win a print. I've missed you!

Vesper said...

SzélsőFa, I'm glad you read it. Thank you for your kind thoughts.

Cat, yes, I haven't been around and I suffer because of that... I miss all of you and all your things of beauty...
Time is a luxury for me plus I'm on that spaceship still. But thank you for coming over. I needed that! :-)
xoxoxo

Jon M said...

I loved the rhythm of this Vesper! Brilliant stuff.

Matt D said...

Utterly fantastic.

Vesper said...

Jon, thank you! :-)

Matt, wow, thank you! And, thank you for visiting my blog. :-)