Anamorphosis, by Sascha Feinstein

The Ambassadors, by Hans Holbein the Younger (Augsburg, Holy Roman Empire, today Germany) 1533

​Anamorphosis
  
Look how the globes, sextant, and lute--
Luxurious artifacts, all—cannot
Undo their expressions of tedium.
Kinetic by objects alone, the ambassador and bishop
Stand like totems of opulence and supplication.
 
Surreal memento mori, challenging
Narrative and composition:
Is Holbein’s distorted skull
Emphasizing their knowledge, or does it
Beckon ours alone? Adventurous viewer,
 
Lean down to the left, peer up to the right.
Observe the activated cranium and sockets.
How clever to bring us all to our knees.

Sascha Feinstein

Sascha Feinstein is the founding editor of Brilliant Corners: A Journal of Jazz & Literature (1996). He is the son of two abstract-expressionist painters and has long been drawn to the relationship between poetry and other arts. His dozen books include Misterioso (winner of the Hayden Carruth Award from Copper Canyon Press) and Ajanta's Ledge. Individual poems have appeared in APR, North American Review, The Georgia Review, and scores of other venues. Honours include the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Artist of the Year. His next book, Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers, is due out in March.