If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso

(Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso,
1881-1973, Spanish artist)

In Cubist art, which began with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, an object is examined from all sides, to present an abstraction of the essence of the object rather than a flat two-dimensional view of the object.

Some years after Picasso gave Gertrude Stein this portrait, with her face painted in the Cubist style he was following at the time, Stein responded in kind with what could be described as a Cubist portrait of her own, but in words.

Stein’s poems definitely benefit from being read out loud. To listen to a reading by Stein herself, accompanied by a video of Picasso's paintings, go here (you may have to cut and paste):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MbWNACKi5A&feature=related


IF I TOLD HIM: A COMPLETED PORTRAIT OF PICASSO

If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him.
Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it.
If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him would he like it would he like it if I told him.
Now.
Not now.
And now.
Now.
Exactly as as kings.
Feeling full for it.
Exactitude as kings.
So to beseech you as full as for it.
Exactly or as kings.
Shutters shut and open so do queens. Shutters shut and shutters and so shutters shut and shutters and so and so shutters and so shutters shut and so shutters shut and shutters and so. And so shutters shut and so and also. And also and so and so and also.
Exact resemblance to exact resemblance the exact resemblance as exact as a resemblance, exactly as resembling, exactly resembling, exactly in resemblance exactly a resemblance, exactly and resemblance. For this is so. Because.
Now actively repeat it all, now actively repeat it all, now actively repeat it all.
Have hold and hear, actively repeat it all.
I judge judge.
As a resemblance to him.
Who comes first. Napoleon the first.
Who comes too coming coming too, who goes there, as they go they share, who shares all, all is as all as as yet or as yet.
Now to date now to date. Now and now and date and the date.
Who came first Napoleon at first. Who came first Napoleon the first. Who came first, Napoleon first.
Presently.
Exactly do they do.
First exactly.
Exactly do they do too.
First exactly.
And first exactly.
Exactly do they do.
And first exactly and exactly.
And do they do.
At first exactly first exactly do they do.
The first exactly.
And do they do the first exactly.
At first exactly.
First as exactly.
At first as exactly.
Presently.
As presently.
As as presently.
He he he he and he and he and and he and he and he and and as and as he and as he and he. He is and as he is, and as he is and he is, he is and as he and he and as he is and he and he and and he and he.
Can curls rob can curls quote, quotable.
As presently.
As exactitude.
As trains.
Has trains.
Has trains.
As trains.
As trains.
Presently.
Proportions.
Presently.
As proportions as presently.
Father and farther.
Was the king or room.
Farther and whether.
Was there was there what was there was there but was there was there there was there.
Whether and in there.
As even say so.
One.
I land.
Two.
I land.
Three.
The land.
Three.
The land.
Three.
The land.
Two.
I land.
Two.
I land.
One.
I land.
Two.
I land.
As a so.
They cannot.
A note.
They cannot.
A float.
They cannot.
They dote.
They cannot.
They as denote.
Miracles play.
Play fairly.
Play fairly well.
A well.
As well.
As or as presently.
Let me recite what history teaches. History teaches.

~ Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), American writer and poet

Home on the Range

(Cutting Cattle on Mowroy’s Ranch, Salt River,
Arizona, 1912, by Dane Coolidge, 1873-1940,
American photographer, writer and poet)

“In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is,” wrote the poet Gertrude Stein (1874-1946).

From the beginning, the wide-open spaces of the American West have attracted homesteaders, ranchers, cowboys, and assorted freedom-seekers.

Many well-known traditional American songs celebrate their way of life. One of the most popular is a verse with a lilting melody that most believe to be a folk song, somehow created by anonymous composers around a campfire, perhaps.

But that story is not true. The words of Home on the Range were written in 1872 by Dr. Brewster Higley (1823-1911), a Kansas physician, and set to music by Dan Kelley (1845-?), a Kansas fiddler. In Higley’s original version, which he called My Western Home, the singer longed for “Home! A home!” with “zephyrs so balmy and light, / That I would not exchange my home here to range / Forever in azure so bright.”

Very early on, the song quickly passed from farm to ranch to town, from Kansas to Colorado to California. A few words were changed along the way. We now sing of “a home on the range.”

To listen to the classic version by Gene Autrey (1907-1998), click on the link (you may have to cut and paste it):

http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/me/20020429.gautry.home.ram

HOME ON THE RANGE

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

Chorus:
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.

How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.

Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.