Outfit that grows up and up

After much deliberation, this is my outfit of choice for Patti's Visible Monday. This past week I have been enjoying wearing each and every one of my outfits so much that I have avoided taking photographs of them or translating the experience into words for fear of dulling the lingering electric edges, if that makes sense. What you see here was one of the most tame of the lot, but what I loved about it was it made me feel positively Brobdingnagian (great word! the giant people from Gulliver's Travels) or, simply, like a very, very tall tree. My trunk was in fact made of wood: Michael Kors thrifted wood platform sandals with leather uppers. The vertical stripes on both layers seemed to roll right past my head and up into the sky.

I thrifted both pieces in one go from the Wildlife Thrift Store, but I never realized at the time that I would be wearing them together. It wasn't until I had done a little closet jamming (layering clothes randomly from hanger to hanger in my closet - you should try it!), that I realized they were exactly the combo I was looking for. 

Details of the outfit

• orange sleeveless maxi, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store, $15?
• blue tunic, thrifted, Wildlife Thrift Store, $12?
• Michael Kors sandals, thrifted, $10, Value Village (not D&G as mentioned in an earlier post)
• long string of beads, too old to remember...
• white nylon maxi slip, came with wedding-type dress, Wildlife Thrift Store

In Other News

I finished reading a very, very long book, and while I feel enlightened by the content, I must confess to feeling relieved to be done with it, so I was happy to receive this short poem emailed to me by a friend based on Shakespeare's King Lear, which is my favourite of the Bard's tragedies. 

In case you don't know the story, a silly man, King Lear, asks his three daughters how much they love him. Two of them sickeningly exaggerate their love and the third says plainly how she loves him the way she has always loved him, no more, no less. The king then splits his kingdom between his two false daughters who promptly banish him to the wilds, only to be rescued by his true loving daughter, Cordelia. But what of Lear's wife? Poet W. S. Merwin asks the question in this great poem, "Lear's Wife." 

Have a great week, everyone! See you over at Patti's place.

The gauntlet was tossed and I picked it up

This is my outfit for Patti's Visible Monday. Thanks, Patti! I call this my garden party skirt, it is so dreamy, flowy, and leg-caressing, perfect for the wind we've been having here, a very girly outfit. I really should have taken a photo of me twirling in this, the skirt is so full. There is a matching cap-sleeve top, giraffe pattern as well, but the two together give me motion sickness.

Details of the outfit:

• giraffe-patterned garden party skirt, chiffon with silky lining, new about 25 years ago
• oversized silk beige blouse, oversized silk fuchsia tank and teal top, hand-me-overs
• thrifted patterned coat by a label in Japan, I love this, $10?
• new thrifted squid-ink indigo felt beret, $6
• nude pantyhose, aaaa! but they have a control panel which makes me feel very put together indeed
• thrifted patent black shoes with deadly heels
• magic pendant O made me (I will do a post of his incredible work soon!)

Speaking of motion sickness...in this next photo it looks like I'm scaling the luge track! I've been mucking about in my studio and the perspective on my backdrop so far is satisfyingly real and unreal. Of course the pose and camera angle help.

This post is actually going up late Sunday evening, hours after the end of the St.Patrick's Day parade downtown. You will note that I'm not wearing green. In fact, I don't think I own any green, but I do have a great Irish poem as a tribute to the festivities... 

SAUCY POETRY ALERT!

"A whey-faced slat"* and a "parboiled ape" with a "tough jaw" are some of the delightful descriptives that 17th century Irish poet David O'Bruadair used to describe a wench who refused to give him free beer. A gent friend from Cornwall, whom I banter with in the art gallery cafe from time to time, fired it off to me last summer in good fun. Well, this saucy poem fell like at gauntlet at my feet and I felt it was time for a few female invectives in response, so I fired off my poem "Ten Dollars" in reply. Mine is a clumsy attempt to mimic Mr. O'Bruadair, as translated by James Stephens, but I had so much fun trying! [SORRY, I HAD TO TAKE MY POEM DOWN. I decided that there are too many invectives and I'm looking for more joy! But here is Mr. O'Bruadair's poem.]
*Please use a "U" instead of an "A" in "slat."

A Glass of Beer

by David O'Bruadair

The lanky hank of a she in the inn over there
Nearly killed me for asking the loan of a glass of beer;
May the devil grip the whey-faced slat by the hair,
And beat bad manners out of her skin for a year.

That parboiled ape, with the toughest jaw you will see
On virtue's path, and a voice that would rasp the dead,
Came roaring and raging the minute she looked at me,
And threw me out of the house on the back of my head!

If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day;
But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange!
May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may
The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange.

______________

[MY MISSING POEM GOES HERE]

Do any of you write poetry? Rosemary the Shopper had an excellent poem in her post of February 23, When in Doubt, Turn to Poetry. It's priceless! Any ideas for replacement or additional lines in the poem I wrote? Or, better yet - and I don't expect it because it takes so much time - another poem in response to Mr. O'Bruadair? If nothing else, I would be satisfied with just two male-equivalent phrases as gratifying as "whey-faced slat" and "parboiled ape."

I hope you got a laugh.