‘Mystic Marriage’, from “A Seasoning of Lust”

from: thoughtsthattoddhasn't had.blogspot.com

We have been kicking around this issue of why we write and why we would bother to keep a blog.  I would suppose there are many reasons to do so, but for hopefully serious writers it’s really a different issue.  We write because ultimately  we can’t not write:  it’s like a river running deep and there  may be issues of blockage or other things that frustrate our attempts …but all that said, we plow on.

I think the point of all of our attempts is to improve.

It’s a craft after all, this cobbling together of words.  It takes some  vision and a lot of work.  We need to read  broadly for that vision to develop and those who don’t are condemned to mediocrity.   There are a lot of blogs out there that don’t attempt to do much except think they interest the public with their agony in life.  They use it as a tool of self-therapy.  This is unavoidable for all of us, because we think our personal problems are issues of great interest…to others besides ourselves.  I’ve done this many times on this blog, but hopefully I have come to understand some things.

People come here to read not because I have answers or because I have their common agony in life.  Sometimes  we do, but  it’s not a common bitching site.

They come here to read my writing.  I owe these readers the very best I can squeak out.  That is a process:  it takes time and a concerted effort on my part to do so.   I don’t write here for affirmation or attention, though in some cases, I get that. (And attention can be good and bad.)  I write here because I try to entertain with my writing and that is reason enough.  Probably what most of us aim for:  we are storytellers,   after all.

I have a great group of fellow writers around me.  Bill Penrose, Nick Nicholson, Dan Holloway, Steve Isaak, and a few others.  Most of these excellent writers can be found on the blog roll to the right of this text.  All of them have worked hard to push their writing upward: they are no slight writers, either, and they always stand to support and help me work out issues.  But the lion’s share of that comes from my own efforts.

If we don’t make those efforts, we can’t call ourselves writers.  At least not in the category I want to belong.

Lady Nyo

“Mystic Marriage”

Mino begs a gift of Poseidon and

from the sea comes a white bull.

Glorious Bull! With hooves of gold,

eyes of fire and sweet of breath.

—

Pasiphae, Mino’s wife

besotted with the sight of him

begs Mino to spare his sword

and offers her handmaidens

for the sacrifice.

—

Tender-hearted Mino allows his wife

to rule his judgment

all sense is pushed aside,

havoc soon overturns the throne.

—

Pasiphae builds a wooden cow

and besotted with lust

climbs into the decoy

Seduces the golden hoofed Bull.

—

The Minotaur is born, suckled from

Pasiphae’s paps,

grew wild –the labyrinth

built to imprison him.

—

Unnatural love- making produces

unnatural monster Minotaur

half man and half bull,

given freedom only in a maze,

fed on virgins of both sexes.

—

But Poseidon has the last laugh.

He was the gift, the snow white bull

and cuckolds Mino

for his greed.

—

Mystic marriage overturns a throne and kingdom,

reveals the deception of woman,

produces monster offspring.

—

In his maze all paths lead to the grave.

—

Jane Kohut-Bartels

Copyrighted, 2009, 2010

New Babies Share the Pelt

These pix are for Nick Nicholson in Canberra, Australia.  Nick is a long time friend and writing buddy, and loves animals.  Shot these this morning before breakfast, Nick.   Found out the rabbit is a “Lionhead Steel- Blue” rabbit..domesticated.  Have no idea of the sex of it.   The baby kitten, male, still unnamed, is doing really well, and took to Hasenpfeffer fast. Both seem fine with each other…Kitten curled up right next to Hasen and purred his head off.  Rabbit undisturbed by intruder.

So far, Peace Reigns.

Another Poem from Nick…..

HOW MANY DAYS

how many days must pass
this hell-bound train
the whizz and flash of ethereal lights
glimpsed
blurred
like that thing
that once passed for a heart
the fugitive glances
at all that is other
desired
adrift in a sludge of mind
in a test pattern world
how many days must pass
until

Nick Nicholson

Copyrighted, 2009

Nick!  You know I’m not the best of critters, but I make a fly over.  I look first how this moves me….and it does.

I think the openness of the structure and ending grabs me first.  That rhythm is there, important, and it’s not just a ‘ramble’.  It’s got this forward propulsion and that makes ‘good’ with the ‘hell-bound’ train imagery.

Plus, you throw in this ‘ethereal lights’ which is the opposite of ‘hell bound train’ to me, and in a sense develops a picture…

I stumbled on “at all that is other desired”   Perhaps drop the ‘other’ but then again, I can see something of the point of ‘other’.  Just a suggestion.  Or drop the desired….something here makes me stumble in the reading…in the mouth.

“adrift in the sludge of mind in a test pattern world” is some strong imagery…good there..this chaotic..or perhaps entrenched mundane? sadness? hopelessness?

Love the ending:  “How many days must pass until”.

That is a brilliant ending.

Nuff said.  Nick, this poem has got to be one of my favorites, and there is much more ‘in it’ than I have grasped, and I am not doing it justice….but it does haunt, and I am sure it will haunt others.

Reminds me of some beat poetry….are you reading Butkowski again??? LOL!  Not a bad influence at all.

______________

Please, others here…and out there….make your own crits.  That is  the purpose of the …ahem….Poetry Workshop theme.

And about that….everyone here is honestly open to crits, rewrite and the slaughter of the lambs….no…not  that the last happens, but we open ourselves for what we know is good, and perhaps bitter medicine right now, but crits lay bare the essentials in a poem, and build improvement….and strengthen the poem and the poet.

In my opinion, those that write and don’t WANT crits…(and there are actually people that express just that…) aren’t serious poets. They want praise, uncritical praise, and they then wonder why people shy away from their poetry.  It’s a form of infantilism or something like that, not to be open to crits to IMPROVE the work.

I have come across a few poets who ‘bare the soul’ ….but act like their poetry is perfect the first off the mark.  None of us, I believe, get it right the first couple of times.  It’s all ego if we think we do….and then IF we don’t get the readers??

We have only ourselves to blame.  There are no short cuts to being a serious poet.  It’s rewrite, rewrite, rewrite….and being open to other eyes.

Lady Nyo

Busy Workshop! and a Poem from Nick Nicholson…

Nick sent me four, and I want to put them all up,  but I want each of them to receive a good reading.  They are rich poems, and like many things, we can gobble them up and lose ourselves in the richness.

So, I will parse them out…one by one, and make them last all week. I will also post some of my own, later,  and others…(hint, hint) but I want to take this a little slower.

My profound thanks to all who are sending in their poems, to the readers,  and also to Dr. Singh in particular who gives us newer poets such great guidance in this heady issue of poetry.

Lady Nyo

THESE ARE THE THINGS

I want to shiver on the edge of your mouth
gasp at the sight of your breast
swim in the wet sugar of your flesh
drown like a fool in your whispered words
crucify myself on the cross of your body

these are the things I want to say
but I don’t

Nick Nicholson

Copyrighted, 2009