A Grandiose Premiere

[narrow belfry]

A Grandiose Premiere

Stars have boundless aliases, a view of the other,
to saunter it the right way— It's up to the latter.
Though faces can be deceiving, feigning to busk,
visages of trust, it has always been thus.

One whose evidence, shines the brightest,
hides under the veil of light, covering messes.
Crowds rejoiced, when displayed a performance,
as an invisible silk latches onto the audience.

The performer fades onto play, elusively hiding—
The Sisyphus carrying the lump in one's throat,
The disheveled odyssey to walk on this road,
and the myriad of shadows of a single soul.

[young frost]

Honestly struggled to understand this poem and would love for you to explain, as the poet, what you were intending to illustrate. I really love the language you use and the references. I think it’s super fun looking up all this stuff and figuring out how it comes into play within the poem. From what I could gather you are describing a person putting on a performance in order to gain the trust of the people around them. The people watching are unknowingly deceived, trapped in an allusion. The more they see this person as someone they’re not, the better the “actor’s” true face is hidden, allowing them to hide in plain sight. The actor seems to be hiding something, using their performance as a coverup to their true identity. Their deceit is futher described when meantioning the Sisyphus in their throat. Sisyphus was punished for his trickery, forever made to carry a boulder up a hill. Makes me think that whatever comes out of this person’s mouth is lies. And usually when people have lumps in their throats it means they are emotional in some way so whatever their driving force is, is somehow causing them to be emotional. This actor has being compared to Odyssey, forced to walk a dangerous path, is making me think there is some unknown backstory. Perhaps this person’s family was killed in an uprising, forcing them to hide while they slowly build their forces- who knows. Anyway, great read! 10/10

[narrow belfry]

You're pretty much on the right track. I'm a beginner and don't post much (also not good at explaining 😓). What encouraged me to write this poem was the phrase "A thousand faces in a thousand places." Got it from a video game where a character has multiple facades wherever she goes, and it made me want to look more deeper about masquerades.

The first stanza, "Stars have boundless aliases." there's a scientific reference to this cause I noticed how scientists tend to name stars according to how they observed it. So, I think it kind of has a correlation with the overall theme? (in accordance to the line "to saunter it the right way, it's up to the latter." On the other hand, this "actor" says that faces can elicit deceit, so no matter how many faces a person has or how people see them, all of them might be fake and can put out for outward appearances.

The second stanza, since stars shine the brightest, adding the "hiding under this veil of light" is case in point of the juxtaposition. The actor wants to please people, even if it means letting out a phony display, "As an invisible silk latches onto the audience." means they have successfully captivated the masses.

As for the last stanza, I wanted to use the reference of Sisyphus's lore since and thought it would be fun to put out what I've learnt from history class (even if it doesn't serve that much significance, don't attack me.) The Sisyphus reference was about how the person is struggling to carry this burden of constantly putting on a spectacle for everyone, and the feeling of futility. "The disheveled odyssey to walk on this road", indicates the actor's past tragedies have driven him to walk down the path of fooling others. (I really like your take on this one 😭🫶 sorry cuz I haven't thought of a detailed tragic backstory for it 😓) "The myriad of shadows of a single soul" could also mean the misery they faced or even the facades they acquired.

longest I've ever sent in this server lol