The Friday Poem: ‘Portrait of the Artist’ by David Eggleton
Photo: Getty Images / Design: Archi Banal
A new poem by Dunedin poet and critic David Eggleton.
Portrait of the Artist
They’ve thrown the Bauhaus under an electric bus.
They’ve torn a strip off Mondrian’s downtown bougie-woogie.
They’ve reinvented Malevich’s black square as a Rubik’s Cube.
They’ve turned Joseph Beuys into a wet blanket the size of the Beehive.
They’ve stuck glitter and metallics all over the sackcloth and ashes.
They’ve travelled on a shoestring, carrying a Barry Brickell bowl.
They’ve cancelled the Colin McCahon stamps.
They’ve woken up the Len Lye sculpture.
They’ve planted Billy Apple in the Karl Maughan garden.
They’ve gone to a far-out galaxy of art collectives.
They’ve become a conceptual ambassador for an Australian bank.
They’ve become a pinball wizard with a spray-can.
They’ve become a smoke alarm, emitting faint beeps of distress.
They’re covered all over by an Onehunga onesie.
The Friday Poem is edited by Chris Tse. Submissions are currently closed.
David Eggleton
David Eggleton lives in Ōtepoti Dunedin and was the Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate between August 2019 and August 2022. His Respirator: A Laureate Collection 2019 -2022 was published by Otago University Press in 2023. He co- edited Katūīvei: Contemporary Pasifika Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand, published by Massey University Press in 2024, and his most recent collection, Lifting the Island: Poems, is out now from Red Hen Press (USA). Links: https://redhen.org/book/lifting-the-island/
