Drowned in Beauty
I Almost Drowned
Spring, and the water lilies were in bloom,
so I took my Grecian urn down pondside
to fill with water for my hyacinths
and Labradors. What a delight to find
seven maids swimming naked and brazen
in spring’s mad equinox. And yet . . . oh pale-
fleshed goddesses, how can mortal choose one
beauty’s epitome from others? I
could not! And so I slid in to dance them
all into the shallows; but seven nymphs
in shallows are a daytime Bacchanal!
Shamed, face flushed and manhood spent, I ran home
to nurse my blooms and groom my hounds, never
to return in spring—to drown in beauty.
David M Pitchford
13 May 2008
Filed under: Jocasta, Waterhouse, Xenoneoclassicist Poetry, classic paintings, creative souls, ekphrasis, fantasy, fear of castration, humor, morality tales, myth, nude, nudity, obsessions, poem, poems, poems about paintings, poetry, poetry revolution, sex, sonnet, wanton, youth | Tagged: David M Pitchford, Waterhouse, ekphrastic poem, poems about paintings, nymphs, Hylas, ekphrasis on Waterhouse, ekphrastic poetry, david pitchford
i absolutely have to know how you do all of these… are you just a brainiac and know all about the portraits,, or do you research it and then fiddle with it till it fits??? some of the stuff you do with this is amazing… and i am sooooo not into like mythology and stuff,, but you draw me in ever time by making the people and their actions magic….
whypaisley, thank you! I’ve been hypnotized by mythology since Ms. Brenda read the Tales of Brave Ulysses to us in second grade. I don’t consider myself a brainiac. I know a little about a heck of a lot, but the only thing I know a heck of a lot about is poetry - and that is so relatively little compared to all there is to know. But I try to bring all the archetypes into a context in which many of us can relate. Because, if you can’t relate, then what the hell’s the sense of the poem? Unless the sound and beauty of the words transcend meaning . . .
Seriously, though, most of this is done straight out. I simply reflect on the image without getting my counsious mind in the way. The hardest part is learning to relax the inhibitions that keep the right and left from integrating. And the best way is just a simple Zen posture and about a dozen conscious breaths . . . Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind . . .