When I visit art galleries and fine arts museums, I’m always entranced by self-portraits. It’s one thing to sit for a portrait and let another’s brush strokes try to replicate skin tone, eye color, and hair. But that doesn’t really do it, does it? Artists are still projecting their skills and their perceptions into the portrait of another person. But when you look at a self-portrait, does it tell you more?

I’ve also always found it kind of frightening to look at photographs of me. That’s really what I looked like at that moment in time….at least from that angle. And really, life is about angles, right?

For today’s Quadrille (a poem of 44 words: no more, no less – not including the title), create a self-portrait.  Perhaps it will be a snapshot of you in some moment of time. Or a taste of your tastes. Or a glimpse into the conglomeration of you — are we perhaps the ultimate nesting doll? Many of us post photos or images with our poems so in this instance, it could be a recent photo; a photo taken in your sepia days; a picture of something you cherish that in essence tells us who you are; an abstract drawing or a flower or animal or color that you ascribe to yourself. Try to make the image complementary to your words.
So, think about it for awhile. Who are you? No one word to include in this prompt….just asking you to create some type of self portrait that you’re comfortable sharing. Let your words be your palette and make broad or fine brush strokes as you wish. You’re the artist here!

Here’s some self-portraits I thought you might enjoy seeing. Do you recognize some of them? Wonder what would have happened had these artists used words instead of a brush?

As always  please do observe the “rules of conduct” for dVerse – and for those of you new to dVerse, here’s what we hope everyone does: 

• Write a self-portrait poem, as the prompt suggests, and post it to your blog.
• Click on Mr. Linky below to add your name and enter the direct URL to your poem
• On your blog, please provide a link back to dVerse
• If you promote your poem on social media, use the tag #dverse poets
• And most importantly, please do read some of the other responses to the prompt and add a short comment or reaction. Everyone likes to be appreciated! The prompt is “live” for several days – as you’ll notice by the comments you’ll receive – so do stop by another day and read a few of the latecomers too!