Whisper, Sweet Muse, Your Song into My Soul
They tell me those halcyon days are gone,
that muses are but childish tales from long
ago centuries. They say that, along
with all the myths, the gods are dead, have gone
to give rise to science . . . They say no one
is home in the heavens, that we belong
in Nature merely as a gambit of strong
probability—primordial spawn
of chance; nevertheless, I hear you call
to the essence of me, that immaterial
self that wanders the stars, ride when they fall
down Sky’s long slant, and imagines the real
infinity of possibility. All
life is song, Wu-Li dance celestial!
So whisper, sweet muse, your song to my soul
that I may strum my lyre to your melodies
and share wonder with this ‘they’, with this whole
disenfranchised land of melancholies
and rampant anxiety; sing my voice
salve to life-numbed hearts and minds dream deprived
by those Apollonian, who by choice
or mistaken faith preach life as survived
existence of the reason only. Teach
us, my muse, the wonder of miracles
in life’s constant complexity, and reach
our hearts that our spirit’s unmanacled!
Whisper your song into my soul, oh muse,
lift our hearts and of reason disabuse!
David M Pitchford
28 May 2008Comments ardently invited! This is a dual sonnet, a Petrarchan opening with a Shakespearian close. Does it work? What works best? What doesn’t quite make it?
Thanks so much for dropping in
Filed under: Petrarchan Sonnet, Psyche, Xenoneoclassicist Poetry, classic paintings, creative souls, depression, dharma, ekphrasis, enlightenment, esoteric, learning, meditation, myth, obsessions, poem, poems, poems about paintings, poetry, poetry revolution, self empowerment, spirituality | Tagged: Apollo, Dionysus, ekphrasis, ekphrastic poem, passion, Petrarchan Sonnet, poems about paintings, Reason v Passion, shakespearian sonnet, sonnet, sonnets
I am weak in my knowledge of sonnets, but I will say that I loved this. I liked the construction and your usages of words.
This evoked a response from me…
MUSE
I am muse.
They call me Calliope.
I break open my chest and let the Universe
Leap out of my heart, and then
Hand it to you on a silver platter
No matter
What it is that you seek to sing
About.
I stir the idea pot, that cosmic matter
Which swirls in fractal rainbows and sits
Ready for any mortal to take hold of
And bound to his – or her – bosom
(I do not discriminate).
I’m singing in the distance –
I am always singing in the distance –
And sending up song seeds up to
The ceiling of collection consciousness
Where they plant themselves and bloom,
Becoming flowers for you to gather
As a fourth dimension traveler.
You spray their petals and perfect scent
When you sing
When you write
When you dance
And when you dance your fingers
On string, ivory, or drum membranes -
And you can let forth,
Creating the music and lyrics to
A Wu-Li dance
Or a Wu-Tang dance
Whatever your rhyme, reason, or season.
I am not dead,
I never was,
And I never will be.
I am muse.
I am Calliope.
http://ravenswingpoetry.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/musemuse/
-Nicole
Oops! It should be:
http://ravenswingpoetry.com/2008/05/28/muse/
-Nicole
[...] that I have written some poetic reactions either to poems of other writings. David Pitchford wrote Dionysus Rising on his blog. This is my response. [...]
i have a hard time with form,, and the sonnet is one that i just cannot seem to wrap around my words… i must say that i did not even notice that this was written in any form,, let alone a blend of two,, and backward as that may be,, that is the highest of compliments from me when reading formed poetry…
so i would have to venture to say ,, that whatever you were trying to do you did fluidly and without any loss of meaning or emotion… bravo!!
Thank you thank you thank you. That is indeed high praise. Form really should be invisible when handled skillfully. So I am very happy to have the compliment! Thank you.
David
i had to change my domain name to whypaisley.com please change your links and or feed as necessary
all you will have to do is remove the - from between why and paisley,, everything else will remain the same and will redirect you to the correct page…. sorry for the inconvenience…