Portrait, Or: Idea of a Body without Organs: 'Face Value'

[Part 1 of a work-in-progress]

Face Value

Before the artist the subject sits.

He is still and he waits.

Of individual traits — hair (brown);

chin (prominent); fingers

(slim, clasped); shirt (smart, white) —

the artist takes no account,

makes no measure. Features pass

into one another, saturating

a surface that precedes

the contour, which precedes the part.

Where the septum ends

and the lip begins is a mere degree.

The cheekbone doesn’t appear

in isolation; it is seen in light

of the jawbone. The hands carry

with them the arms, as the cuffs

must appear with the sleeves.

Without division or interval,

the body appears as pure form

over content, surface without depth.

For the artist, the subject before him

is an object understood, clearly

— as one and at once.