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Pavane For A Cyber-Princess
A poem of a girl created –
"The architects of her soft hardware
have curried her with a curious air:
the archetypal and breathless "O"
of a late and eagerly awaited arrival
charmed by the applause of the masses.
It matters little what she says,
only that she speaks."
– yet for what? A dominion lost may be the price she claims.
This is ISBN is unique for the signed and numbered first edition.
"The architects of her soft hardware
have curried her with a curious air:
the archetypal and breathless "O"
of a late and eagerly awaited arrival
charmed by the applause of the masses.
It matters little what she says,
only that she speaks."
– yet for what? A dominion lost may be the price she claims.
This is ISBN is unique for the signed and numbered first edition.
- GenresPoetry
16 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
8 people want to read
About the author
Bruce Boston
352 books117 followersI've published more than sixty books and chapbooks, including the novels Stained Glass Rain and the best-of fiction collection Masque of Dreams. My work ranges from broad humor to literary surrealism, with many stops along the way for science fiction, fantasy, and horror. My novel The Guardener's Tale (Sam's Dot, 2007) was a Bram Stoker Award Finailist and a Prometheus Award Nominee. My stories and poems have appeared in hundreds of publications, including Asimov's SF Magazine, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, Realms of Fantasy, Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and The Nebula Awards Showcase, and received a number of awards, most notably, a Pushcart Prize, the Bram Stoker Award, the Asimov's Readers' Award, the Rhysling Award, and the Grand Master Award of the Science Fiction Poetry Association. For more information, please visit my website at http://www.bruceboston.com/
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 6, 2017
A court dance dedicated to a she who was made to capture the senses, presented in words that do likewise.
"Her exquisite cadaver
rises from a laboratory table,
the fascia of her reconstructed spine
arching in a sensous circumflex
that could pique the interest
of the most jaded lover."
Thus begins Pavane for a Cyber-Princess by introducing to us the android lady made for seduction, and also, when one considers the words but a moment, indirectly her creators who stood by that laboratory table and those intentions she was made to please. But contemplate the cover art, the Rorschachian piece which greets us before even a word is spoken – yes, the cover itself is devoid of audio-to-visual swapables, leaving the image unmodified by sentiments beyond what is contained within itself – and we are reminded of psychoanalysis and are primed to seek the introspective, conjuncted with the horrible visage subtly emerging from the ink clouds we can ascertain that somewhere, within a mind-realm, a bête noire conceals itself. So far it is betrayed that the poem will bring us mountain and valley of the sensous and libidinous as contrasted by a "vertiginous descent to an unnamed circle."
1508, the year of the first pavane, Venice housed the stage: Sedate, decorous, and dignified; a processional court dance where the performers in slow, meticolous movements present themselves, their hides and the coverings of those on display, twirling like the glamorous peacock which gave name to these kinesics of posture, like jewels under scrutiny and threat of discardure. The natural element, the ecosystem, and taxonomy of the cyber-princess can be described with that word alone; 'pavane', as imitating pavo cristatus, is her existence as demigodly inculcated on the table. Exposed as it is, true safety is her denied.
Do you think my description too difficult, too unorthodox, too convoluted? – then abandon any hope of entering into this tale. Boston is an author who seems to relish in spotlighting obscure ends of the dictionary, ever searching for terms whose essence come closer and closer to perfectly emulating a given concept through ink. With these terms he builds sentences resembling the true avant-garde, yet which seems to be expressions merely enigmatic to himself rather than truly experimental, again searching a true projection of sentiment onto paper. There are even regular segments throughout this poem where he re-defines the words he has already presented the readers with, demanding that we return to the original sentence and re-interpret it as a whole. (E.g. "and mounted on a spinning carousel," is redefined thus: "'spinning' as in 'revealing every scabrous inch of her larval obscenity.'") He is in ways an author who cater to authors, to those whose experience realize the difficulty of what he does and the art of it. Yet, a connoiseur of language, like this reviewer, is far from estranged but rather encouraged with each word to consume more. Yes, I think my own Rorschachian visage currently portrays a literary greed which still lingers even after I've consumed every sentence herein.
"Her exquisite cadaver
rises from a laboratory table,
the fascia of her reconstructed spine
arching in a sensous circumflex
that could pique the interest
of the most jaded lover."
Thus begins Pavane for a Cyber-Princess by introducing to us the android lady made for seduction, and also, when one considers the words but a moment, indirectly her creators who stood by that laboratory table and those intentions she was made to please. But contemplate the cover art, the Rorschachian piece which greets us before even a word is spoken – yes, the cover itself is devoid of audio-to-visual swapables, leaving the image unmodified by sentiments beyond what is contained within itself – and we are reminded of psychoanalysis and are primed to seek the introspective, conjuncted with the horrible visage subtly emerging from the ink clouds we can ascertain that somewhere, within a mind-realm, a bête noire conceals itself. So far it is betrayed that the poem will bring us mountain and valley of the sensous and libidinous as contrasted by a "vertiginous descent to an unnamed circle."
1508, the year of the first pavane, Venice housed the stage: Sedate, decorous, and dignified; a processional court dance where the performers in slow, meticolous movements present themselves, their hides and the coverings of those on display, twirling like the glamorous peacock which gave name to these kinesics of posture, like jewels under scrutiny and threat of discardure. The natural element, the ecosystem, and taxonomy of the cyber-princess can be described with that word alone; 'pavane', as imitating pavo cristatus, is her existence as demigodly inculcated on the table. Exposed as it is, true safety is her denied.
Do you think my description too difficult, too unorthodox, too convoluted? – then abandon any hope of entering into this tale. Boston is an author who seems to relish in spotlighting obscure ends of the dictionary, ever searching for terms whose essence come closer and closer to perfectly emulating a given concept through ink. With these terms he builds sentences resembling the true avant-garde, yet which seems to be expressions merely enigmatic to himself rather than truly experimental, again searching a true projection of sentiment onto paper. There are even regular segments throughout this poem where he re-defines the words he has already presented the readers with, demanding that we return to the original sentence and re-interpret it as a whole. (E.g. "and mounted on a spinning carousel," is redefined thus: "'spinning' as in 'revealing every scabrous inch of her larval obscenity.'") He is in ways an author who cater to authors, to those whose experience realize the difficulty of what he does and the art of it. Yet, a connoiseur of language, like this reviewer, is far from estranged but rather encouraged with each word to consume more. Yes, I think my own Rorschachian visage currently portrays a literary greed which still lingers even after I've consumed every sentence herein.
January 8, 2012
Excellent stuff. This is one long, connected poem. Boston's word choices are so precise and elegant. At atimes you can just read this poem sheerly for the language, without even worrying about meaning. I read this in ebook and I highly recommend it.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews