Prophet of High Street

Image of Damian Hurst's scultpture 'For the Love of God' featuring an 18th century skull, non-conflict diamonds and human teeth for tanka on theme of diamonds and pearsl

crafted in the womb

of earth’s mantle, mollusc’s shell

iridescent gem

brilliantly refracting stone

nature labours, profit born

 

Inspiration for this tanka from RononvanWrites’ Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge #94 ‘diamonds’ and ‘pearls’. The memento mori is Damian Hirst’s sculpture ‘For the Love of God’, produced in 2007, photograph courtesy of Aaron Weber. The skull was cast in platinum from an 18th century skull,  encrusted in non-conflict diamonds and set off with real pearly whites, to the tune of £14M. Hirst alleges that he sold it for £50M to an anonymous consortium. So many points to discuss, but I would say vulgarity and greed are the first things that come to mind. At least they were non-conflict.

14 thoughts on “Prophet of High Street”

    1. Got a spare 50 million pounds lying about? haha. I actually wrote the poem before finding the pic. I was initially looking for scanning electron microscope images of diamonds or pearls but they turned out to be pretty boring, then I changed my search, looking for a pic of a diamond being exhibited with people watching in awe as though it was a religious icon on display, and the skull appeared! and it matched my poem perfectly! And I’m still in my PJs and need to move away from the computer NOW!

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      2. At last my procrastination disguised as image selection has paid off!!! I rarely write in response to the images I have picked, unless I have stated that. My image inspired writing has mainly been paintings and the odd sunday photo fiction.

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      4. I know a dental hygienist and a jeweller (not the same person) so we could get them to help with those teeth. As for the heist, I’m considering deleting this post to, you know, hide the evidence. Just hoping the biscuit crumbs don’t give it away…

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