{"id":4340,"date":"2013-05-09T22:01:55","date_gmt":"2013-05-09T21:01:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.peakepro.com\/?p=4340"},"modified":"2015-02-03T11:38:12","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T11:38:12","slug":"robert-peake-the-elder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertpeake.com\/archives\/4340-robert-peake-the-elder.html","title":{"rendered":"A Poem for my Nemesis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Henry,Well, not quite. For all I know, we may be related. <\/p>\n

But imagine my frustration at being beat in search engine results for my own name by someone who has been dead for almost 400 years. I decided to channel that frustration into a tribute in the form of a digital experiment. <\/p>\n

What follows is the poem I wrote for Robert Peake the Elder<\/a>, an English painter in the court of King James I. I have added links on various phrases in the poem to images of portraits that inspired the text. I have also included audio of me reading the poem, and a gallery of images at the bottom of the page. [Update 3\/2\/15:<\/strong> We have now produced a film-poem based on this poem as well<\/a>.]
\n<\/p>\n

\nNamesake<\/strong>
\n(to Robert Peake the Elder, c. 1551\u20131619)<\/span><\/p>\n

Whenever I look for myself, I find you,
\nin the smirking red lips of nobility<\/span><\/a>,
\nhigh foreheads unmarred by frown lines,
\nplunging into narrow noses, eyebrows
\nraised enquiringly, hand-on-hip or hand-
\non-chest, close to the sword<\/span><\/a>, the heart<\/span><\/a>,
\neach making the art of dominion seem
\neffortless. You made danger your business,
\npainting the princess who became Winter’s<\/span><\/a>
\nQueen<\/span><\/a>, the prince who blazed into infamy<\/span><\/a>,
\none hand stroking the notable features,
\nthe other rubbing blemishes to a glow.
\nYou gave the public a profile to recognise,
\nsuitors an image to scar in the mind,
\nenemies an opponent worthy to despise–
\nsmoothing and lightening, your own figures
\nof nobility half-studied in the impatient
\ngaze of human sitters, half evoked in symbols
\npoured over the comely calves of gentle-
\nfolk in gleaming silk<\/span><\/a>, pearls dotted
\nwith a single hair of liquid gypsum
\n(making each oyster’s teardrop shine<\/span><\/a>),
\nlace collars laced with linseed oil
\n(washed into translucence like a dream<\/span><\/a>).
\nI ego-surf my way through glowing pages,
\nmy own head shots mixed with Jacobites
\nand Tudors, Bohemians fancying themselves
\nas Grecian deities<\/span><\/a>, enmeshed and immortalised
\nby a computer’s comprehension of same letters
\nin same order, nothing more, while your
\nfaces peer back from beneath the two words
\nI used to like to think of as “myself”.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[soundcloud url=”http:\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/91467782″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” \/]<\/p>\n