Poetry, Art and My First Ever Video / PERSISTENCE OF VISION

A Storehouse of Crumbling Paper

Making a Record of Life

My poem Persistence of Vision details an individuals attempt to make a final accounting of his life, to leave a record or legacy behind. The poem references to two historical events that maybe unfamiliar so I have taken time to define them.

• Edward Muybridge (1830-1904) was an English photographer who took sequential photos, motion studies that he later projected as stop action movies. His first and most famous sequence was taken to prove that when a horse gallops there is a moment when all four of its hooves are off of the ground .

• The Mutoscope was invented in 1894. It was an early motion picture device that used a manual cranked to advance a ring of flipping cards. For a nickel people could watch short stop action movies. Many, like What the Butler Saw, were rather risque.

Persistence of Vision

My attendant, with her back to the sun,
primps outrageous hoopla
and puckers
moist lips for a selfie.

I sit all alone in my hospital gown.
The wheels of my chair
cast a long shadow,
a spiraling trail
in a Civil War graveyard.

A shoe box is balance on my knees.
There are Polaroid pictures
like Rolodex cards.

Black and white memories:
galloping horses, naked men waltzing
and all kinds of women
with gymnastic prowess.

They are ordered
so my life will unfold
like a Mutoscope peep show.

As you watch, you will see
there were times
my toes left the ground.

Note: this is my first attempt at creating a video, I hope to do more. Let me know what you thought of it.

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Writing and art are my own.