MAENADS

Tags

classical, female, Metaphor, mythological, poem, poetry, psychoanalytical, Repression, sublimation

MAENADS

what do Maenads do
on their day off

but
cool down

cannot go around the whole day
tearing to
shreds the whole day in
celebration of
Dionysus
(Aetna and Vesuvius
could not stand comparison
with such
steaming
and smoking)

but is that not
gold
streaming out
down South,
pouring
out
of
Africa

and so it is, Aphrodite
settles back on a chais longue
(always
go French!)
taking a
bit of a break, a holiday

so many golden girls walking the streets
the sure touch of Midas
much to do
with that making

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MY STORY

Tags

classical, poem, poetry, Reader, Story, writing

MY STORY

my story
began

my story
ended

before we
were even
on the same page

you
went fully
Classical, turned
Cicero upon me

called my
magnum opus
to thick
in the centre
thin
in
its vision

was a bit
of an affront
to the reader
of taste

and I
just shrugged, went
and Tarantinoed you
sprung
some Jean-
Luc
on you
(exorta aliqua
Jean-Luc vobis)

my story ending
my
story begins

OUT OF OVID

Tags

innuendo, Metamorphosis, poem, poetry, serpent, Snake, wordplay, writing

OUT OF OVID

it was a metamorphosis
straight out of Ovid

the two of us
beneath the stars
by body
turning serpent
going
snake

all in order
to translate my
poetry for you
into sexual passion

IN THEORY

Tags

Boris Johnson, Caesar, Catullus, classical, Classical Scholar, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, satire

IN THEORY
(POEM FOR
THE CLASSICAL
SCHOLAR AS
IF WRITTEN
BY CATULLUS)

Oh Lesbia
I see your lover has
styled himself
lover
of the people

would jizz them up
to do what
some would say
truly unthinkable

but it is all
a matter of belief
you see
him Caesar
the crowds to
his tune
with this

marching into battle
with paper swords
and shields

their victory
assured
in theory.

THE ANTI-PANDORA

Tags

Greek, mythology, poem, poetry, writing

THE ANTI-PANDORA

had a big bag of
poetic words
tipped them
out

they flew away before
I could slot them together
to construct
a truly evocative piece
of nonsense

people watching my
battle must
have thought me
an Ancient Greek
or something because
they responded to me
as if I were
the anti-Pandora

CATULLUS PARADOX

Tags

Catullus, erotic, Lesbia, love, poem, Poet, poetry, Sexual, sexual symbolism, wordplay

CATULLUS PARADOX

It’s the Catullus paradox
the more I write you
the greater I
travel from you
or you
from me
(everything sex
and love
so relatively speaking)

that former desire
hot as a sun
now grown
stone cold

or so I thought
but then I heard your voice
again
perverse little sparrow
of my heart’s desire

would seduce you in Latin
but you would turn that
lust spiritual
make of my poetry
a liturgy

there you are
the little island I can
never reach

mountain I can never climb

and here we are
in a poem again

me almost able to resist
the absolute temptation
to speak as if a Roman general on
track to
turn Emperor

shouting verbs of conquest
as he surfs in to your shore.

OF THE WINE-DARK SEA

Tags

Alien, mythology, Narrative, Ocean, poem, poetry, Reader, sea, Universe, writing

OF THE WINE-
DARK SEA

I regaled the aliens
with the epics of Homer

saw the look on their faces
when they first encountered
the concept of
thousand-ship beauty

nod in agreement when
finding easy cosmic equivalents
from their intergalactic experience
of the
wrath of Poseidon
and seemingly
infinite immensity
of the wine-dark sea.

VIDI VICI

Tags

Julius Caesar, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, populism, ROME, satire

VIDI VICI AND THE REST
THAT IS IN CHARACTER
(mais je ne suis pas venu)

so you got a smattering
of Latin
most of the conjugations,
declensions off pat

and now you
parade yourself through
every forum
that will have you
as if
you are
Julius Caesar

thrice-refusing everything
in imperious third person

and I get it, I get it:
the obvious similarity
given the purple toga
and the way
you now comb your hair

but as far as I can gather
you are a bit behind in your conquests
more gall bladder sufferer
than scourge of all Gaul

and not much of same mettle
though the gods in
their wisdom giving
you some character armour

but when
Caesar walked into Senate
that Ide March day
he knew when
they came for him

wasn’t satire
they’d be carrying, sworn to
journalistic exposure

stuff that our good democrats
(not of the populist pseudo-variety)
would be
aiming to assassinate
with

saving the man
slaughtering
the character

POEM ON WORKERS’ DAY

Tags

poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, ROME, slavery, slaves, socialism, socialist, Spartacus, workers

POEM ON WORKERS’ DAY

so I pulled into Rome
on workers day
to debate liberty
with some slave owners

wore red
which I had difficulty explaining
would be our colour

not the colour of Empire, of
its soldiers and legions

there, within earshot, a Thracian gladiator training,
his sharp Greek philosophical mind
listening to the debate
taking

as he dies on the cross of ultimate rebellion
all that was said to its logical conclusion

AGAIN

Tags

Alien, Aphrodite, classical, mythology, poem, poetry, sexual symbolism

AGAIN

For years I dreamt of first alien contact
viewed through the mythology
of classical times

(our world hardly having progressed much, going for
much flimsier structures, shabbier ideas,
reintroduction of slavery,
poetry that
anyone with half an ear
would not wish to read)

and so I scanned the stars once again
carefully, but not exhaustively,
looking for signs
and signals yet
conserving my energies

no sense in arriving home dead
and dispirited
unable to rise in
mortal human homage

should Aphrodite care to visit
(honoring me again).