The Placebo Diaries (3)

Las Meninas Placebos

that sacred place

at the crossroads of existence

where piece by piece

Pablo disassembled his muses

upon a wafer of painted canvas

a sculptured vivisection

a patchwork of stained-glass

the transubstantiation

of a new wine frozen in time

the sacrament of broken flesh

a surgeon’s scalpel

the artist’s brush

for the crime

of endlessly pursuing

a climactic rush

into the eye of perfection

with a synergism extreme

Pablo Picasso

the Minotaur de Málaga

is now trapped in the bullring

of old Barcelona

by order of the Spanish Inquisition

A masterpiece of cubism

hangs restless in the museum

relentlessly seeking hidden meaning

under the skirts of ‘Las Meninas’

those Iberian Ladies-in-Waiting

From behind a golden curtain

in the corner

of his baroque pièce de résistance

Diego Velázquez is quietly watching

Salvador Dali

and Vincent Van Gogh

in the aftermath of a still life

are free to come and go

upon a guided tour of creation

Johannes Vermeer

and Diego Velázquez

are there waiting in a white room

at the station where it all began

with just a refraction

of the Holy Spectrum

On the bathroom wall

someone has written

‘Creation Is Destruction’

Sadly . . . El Greco

and Michelangelo Caravaggio

were caught up in the undertow

after a night out at Club Placebo

I was holding up the bar

at Club Placebo

when a tourist bus

full of heavenly hosts

came looking for Pablo.

I told them Picasso

was totally innocent

of whatever he’s been accused of

him being an artist … of course.

They retorted that they just wanted

to raise a toast to the master cubist

… not to give him a roast.

So I suggested they might find Pablo

at the Spearmint Rhino

a mile or two down the Damascus Road.

As the sound system at Club Placebo

reached biblical proportions

and was ready to explode

the wild boys

with their end times toys

rode in and began

hitching their horses

to four of the pole dancers.

At that

Henri Toulouse-Lautrec

went totally berserk

lodging a strong complaint

with club management.

Salvador Dali

the Hallucinogenic Toreador

just sat there painting

The Generic Face of War

Then suddenly

I heard someone shouting

“WAKE UP, DAVID!!!”

Words;
by David B. Redpath © 2021

the day Picasso

left Placebo Town

a giant flood of blood

fell from the sky

washed away the road

and Picasso never returned

poets claim that red tears

fell from sky

poets claim all sorts of things

seven golden lampstands among them

someone like a man

with eyes of blazing fire

do not get me started

trumpetlike voices

priestly garments

Yahweh Sebaoth overhead

giant floating eyes

above us

~ Multiple Michael

Refurbished Artworks;
by Multiple Michael Lewis ©2021

https://wp.me/p1L3GZ-9uj

90 thoughts on “The Placebo Diaries (3)”

    1. A Very Happy Birthday RS 🎉
      . . . for the 25th of October!
      (a premature evocation 😎
      . . . maybe? 🤔)

      Picasso’s artwork has the power to
      cut through and truly connect on a
      primal, and physically visceral level.
      It was his doorway to the spiritual.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Thank you unreservedly 🙏
      Pleasure cruising the Multiverse
      does have it’s risks. Especially when
      an unfriendly virus hops on board 🚀
      not to mention the fiery re-entry🔥😎
      How’s your weekend going, Paltry?

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      1. Hey…Not too bad, just working working. I should have soon good news to announce pretty soon… Meanwhile I am trying to persuade myself that I like marijuana. Not entirely succeeding. Slightly more success eating the damn stuff than smoking it. Firey re-entry huh? Damned Multiverse Travelling? Button-ed up? Or good ole Mr 25? Im so bored in the USA. You make an excellent Dali, dear. You have that certain look in your eye…👁👁‍🗨👀…

        Liked by 2 people

      12. It’s safe to get a haircut in the
        Pan handle . . . or not? Just not
        a bowl cut full of dust, and the
        grapes of wrath 🍇
        A bit like being fleecing by a
        sheepish wolf in the bible belt 🐺

        Liked by 1 person

      13. My dear friend, no one handles or cuts my hair except me. Kind regards, Delilah doin’ the dust bowl dance who knows what kind shenanigans go on when those hippy freaks get some jelly on their shoulders…move it on!

        Liked by 1 person

      16. Who ain’t got a dirty boulevard?

        I once heard that Bob Dylan,
        and even the urbane Leonard
        Cohen, hailed from that region?
        Perhaps now music, and old
        Joe Biden, can make America
        graciously great again? 🇺🇸 😎

        Yes, everywhere there’s
        a dirty boulevard?
        I often wish, just like Lou Reed,
        to fly, fly, fly away.

        Liked by 1 person

      17. Now you are talking, space-brother, you know I have a sweet spot for Lou…. Biden? Not so much. They are all shit, all the politicians don’t give a fuck about the little people on the boulevard. You know what the Statue of Bigotry said? Give me your poor, your tired, your hungry..and Ill piss on ’em…Cohen is excused, he was Canadian….

        Liked by 1 person

      19. He was chasing the money and the flesh. but that was called love for the workers in song…still is for those of them left…..You know what his countrywoman Joni said…”there were indians acting like tourists man….and tourists acting like indians…” but then you can’t always trust Joni…

        Liked by 1 person

  10. It was a mind-bending trip through this post. I quite liked having my mind bent. My main memory of cubism is from an American lit seminar in grad school, in which I actually uttered the words “the essense of chairness” with a straight face.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. Plato and Pablo … brilliant, Liz!
      Together the creative synergy will
      be ultimately unstoppable.
      To extract the essence out of a
      higher abstract existence. Just as
      when Picasso and Dali got together
      at art school and decided, in essence,
      to blow that joint out of the stagnant
      waters of tradition, with the resulting
      synergism of a new Super Realism.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  12. Felt like the best kind of gallery walk the one with drinks and talk that excites. The images breaking up the conversation at just the right places, easing our minds in and out of the words. How crucial the surgical scalpel of the artist’s brush to heal, entice, and fill us with such rich dreams. Great piece. Placebos work and I will revisit.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you muchly, K 🙏💛
      for taking the excursion
      through the Placebo gallery
      of Pablo eye candy 👁️🍭👁️😎
      When it comes to writing poetry
      I often hear Dali de Salvador
      knocking at my door 🚪
      exclaiming, “Less is more!”.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  14. I trudged up ‘Rocky’s’ steps at the Philadephia Arts Museum, to view the masterly brush work of Picasso .. I was out of breath after the climb, … but trip was well worth the effort …

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I’ve been trying hard now
      to fly out of a rocky 🥊
      Placebo Town lock down
      Ivor, but I’ve now got my
      ticket to ride
      so I’m finally out the door
      Gonna fly now ✈️
      Flying high now
      to a sunny northern shore ☀️

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. Picasso has a powerful effect on me. I enjoyed this very much.Once I collased while looking at one of his drawings and no other artist had affected me so much [It could be bad now I am old!].

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      1. It was a drawing on a card in a shop! I looked at it and my legs gave way. It was the unexpectedness of it. Lincoln Cathedral also made my legs give way when it was floodlit. My body must be very responsive to beauty.

        Liked by 2 people

    1. Thanks for weaving your way through
      the Picasso chapter, Barbara 🙏 😎
      I guess being a diary, it should be in
      the form of a book? 📙🤔 I’ll have to
      run that past my collaborator, and
      main illustrator, Multiple Michael.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  17. Pingback: David Redpath and Multiple Michael have been drinking first-class Spanish Kool Aid...... - Vin de Vie Wine of Life
  21. Pingback: The Placebo Diaries (3) – Blogul lui Roman

  22. Enjoyed your post greatly, the paintings and the words, produce an irreverent homage, that shows you as inheritor of an artistic tradition going from Velasquez to Picasso, and it’s also fun to look at.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    1. A heart full thank you for viewing
      our blasphemous conflagration🔥
      A multiple bless you from myself
      … and the artful Michael 🎨
      As for me, I was taught the art
      of mirth after being abandoned
      at birth, a time honoured family
      tradition 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. Thank you very much, Dwight 🙏
      The refurbished artwork was all
      done by my accomplice, Multiple
      Michael 🎨(except the last piece
      which is all Picasso). I guess it
      would be a bit narcissistic to do
      those facial implants myself 🤔
      I’m only egotistical enough to
      replant them in my posts 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. A coincidence, Tanmay …
      I had a Deconstructed
      Lemon Meringue Pie
      for dessert just the other day 😋
      Bits of it was sweet 🍭
      and bits of it was sour 🍋
      some of it went crunch
      Perhaps . . .
      I was eating it backwards? 🤔
      Such is life, I guess 😎

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a comment