The Monster We Conquer
Hello, Hivelander. Thank you for clicking in. I invite you to check our my audio blog where I will read to you what follows. I promise you, if nothing else you will find it soothing. But of course if you prefer to read, scroll on past the link and get call book nerdy. I love you anyways.
Link to Audio Blog
The Sylph Sings
a fiery, fickle, and shifting façade
keeps would-be explorers and pilgrims
at bay, their desires turned elsewhere
there are easier landing sights
other virtues to be claimed
alluring and dusty glory
where the red will flow
for those who wish to be first
the god of war is surprisingly easy
to pillage and plunder
where’s the fun of planting a flag
in a sizzling mist, where no one can see
your pole unfurl and flap
you can’t colonize the clouds
grasp the sublimated, mechanize the molten
good luck remoulding tephra and ash
to the whims of order and utility
the goddess of love…
remains aloof and untouchable
yet in her isolation
the sylph sings
a beguiling but elusive siren
a coy trickster
she writhes a syncopated serpentine
weaves silky ribbons and stays
not to be unlaced
bathed by solar tempests
galvanized in the heat
Venus forges an ethereal
but unforgiving shield
bruising and scalding the clutches
of would-be voyageurs and conquistadors
The Sylph in my little space-inspired poem is our neighbour planet, Venus. Before we could see through the opalescent planetary gem's atmosphere, those inclined to space travel dreamed of setting foot, fingers, and toes on the soil of the Roman Goddess of Love's namesake. Alas, in the case, not only does love hurt, it burns and incinerates. Venus despite being farther away than Mercury from the sun, is the hottest planet, literally. With her thick and smothering atmosphere and volcanic activity, she keeps her hotness to herself. Mars on the other hand, who is ironically, named after the Roman God of War, is much easier to conquer. The answer to the proverbial Frost query ... fire or ice ... the astronomical engineer types choose ice. Living tundra-adjacent as I do, I see fire as the bigger flex.
But be it the steamy or the icey, we all like to pursue the unobtainable, from time to time. Here on Earth, we got more flow, curents, and depth than we know what to do with ... and I am not just talking about our oceans. There is something about the pursit of leivathans, new lands, and greater depths and distance, that has a very sneaky way of teaching us about ourselves. The irony, it is only when we cease to chase, explore, and capture do we get to enjoy what we uncovered. But where is the narrative and excitement in that.
The White Whale
The white whale, a ghost upon la Mar Corazon
Armed with harpoons, forged by Eros, honed by Mars
Lulling the swimmer to sleep with its song
Drowning with the immensity of its wake
Turning depths from calm to tempest to icy doldrums
Once felt, the white whale won’t be forgotten
Water-logged with longing or barnacled with hate
Alas, just like Ahab, you have no choice but to follow
A maritime will-o-wisp, shifting, submerging
A phantom on a silvery, sinking horizon
The white whale, glimpsed by those who can but gaze
Offered, but like a fist full of brine, forever out of reach.
If you listen to me on a regular basis, you know that I believe we are all connected, not just our physical form, through the energy and the subatomic, but that our minds are connected as well; that means there is no separation between you and me, our allies, or even our enemies. Now I don't mean to say that you should put up with hideous behaviour .. unmask and defang the monsters, especially those masquerading as saints ... but understand whatever made them a monster, whatever made them cruel and selfish, create false barriers, exists in you as well, to some degree. Or you would not recognize it in another. For some reason that which makes us cruel was concentrated in them and caused them to conquer and colonize, rather than nurture and empower.
You see it in them, not so you can become an activist, but so that you may dissolve it in you. So when power flows to you, as you enlighten, it will, you allow the power to flow and redistribute, do not impede the power, lose your beauty, and become a gorgon, that is a Medusa, to be sure you do not lose yourself to the monsters you fight.
From Nightmares to Lucidity
a tide away
from the sea
of lucid dreaming
is a range of shifting shoals
moonlight and waves
shadows and starlight
create a world of illusions
the voice inhabiting the ribbed-sands
will tell you
you have awakened
the realm you have emerged from
was imaginary
imaginary and full of monsters
turn back
fight the leviathans and gorgons
it demands, or fall asleep again
wake-up the sleeping beauties
and somnambulist narcissists
before they fall deeper still
into the sinuous grasp of serpents
enemies are everywhere
reject and fight
hide or flee
go ahead
feed terror and anger
joust with windmills
save the world
I ask you
how can you be awake
if you are still living a nightmare
all existence is based on illusions
the perceptions and preferences
the fears and insecurities
of beings contained
within the formless mind
sub-atomic space
collisions and contrast
experienced as solid
who do you save
when the tentacled limb
you lob up is your own
the connection unseen and ethereal
how will you run
when there is no solid land
to find firm footing
no place
outside yourself
you are only ever dreaming
you have gained awareness
when your enemies
have transformed from foes
to creatures of wonder
ask yourself
why do you create this way
perhaps then
you might truly wake-up
and soon discover
there is no need to
shift your reality
from nightmares
to lucidity
***
Words and Images are my own.
The Sylph Sings is published in Domesticate the Heaves. The White Whale is published Strays. From Nightmare to Lucidity is published in Monsters, Avatars, and Angels. All titles are available in paperback or digital through amazon and your local libraries and bookstores. Click on any title below to further explore and support my writing.
I live your planetary insights, this are not always what they seem or reflect the ancient lore attributed to them.
Merci, mon ami:)
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