![]() Worries about his standing among his peers. It was hard to know who the real princesses were. I did strip out some of the more smart-alecky lines because Anne Sexton was much better at that, although the anachronisms I kept in because they're just too fun to leave out. I always want to dance around the topic and then spin out. I still feel the poem starts out strong but doesn't know how to resolve. And the prince doesn't need a mother for that. So out she went this morning and the poem was tweaked back to its original intent, to be about the dangers of discernment. Mothers-in-law draw focus, as they should. The original story contained the prince's mother, which was very interesting but the poem then went in too many directions. It needs more work down the line, a very old poem that I overhauled quite a bit today. We just stand here measuring each other upĬats or dogs, appreciation of the semi-colon,Īfter my heart is dripping off his claws? Sitting like a gentleman with his wicked, I thought we'd evolved beyond the paradigmīut there's a dragon in my dressing room, The semi-colon joke is for Christopher (who defiantly maintains this requirement in his does-he-fit list). I almost rearranged the ending but then realized I'd lose that accidental rhyme that happened. I also reworked some modifiers, deciding old allusions didn't mean the same to me now. Today I reworked a lot of the phrases, taking out as many as I've added so it's about the same length. ![]() It was actually titled 'Prologue.' But I don't think it's a good first step for these poems. This is a very old one, initially the first prologue poem to the 20+ year-old set. Utter fury disheveling my manicured tresses. I never realized I was pacing the grounds And what about those women on the outside, instead of huntsmen (who seem to be the particular lotharios of fairy tales)? I was reading a haunted house novel over Covid and there was a tower in it and this got me thinking about the Rapunzel story and how not all towers are filled with women. She thinks of her sister and all her sisters. She remembers the pleas of her father, the chief vizier, Standing in the vestibule of another Arabian night, To pleasure him for the rest of her life.īecause if she doesn't she will be caught up in a snareĪnd if she does she will be ensnared in the catch Scheherazade stands behind the curtain, composing herself, To save her head, to save the realm, to tip over She hesitates a moment, caught up in the gargantuan task. To hold his attention like a child to a butterfly. Not knowing if she has the energy to entertain him one more day, Of another twilight, a widower's peak, arched and complex, ![]() Now she stands under the Moorish doorframe ![]() This was three hundred and sixty-three days ago. In his own curious nature night after night,īlissfully tangled in her dramas and sagasĪnd the soap opera of Sinbad's re-sailings. The starlet of the day, and yet was unexpectedly savedĮach dawning by cliffhangers of impromptu tales, Scheherazade entered his long list of betrothedsĪfter three years of beheadings, and was crowned The bitterly unfaithful whole as exemplified by one-by-one-īy murdering a new procured wife every morning-after. His bruised-heart's willingness to punish all women. Scheherazade took him on to save her sex, to circumvent Using rage as reason on account of his first wife's deceivery. I'm calling her subset of poems in this series 'The Scheherazade Six' and here is the first one, recapping the original predicament.Īfter one hastily-considered late night of feminist bravado,Ī dragon thrashing in the sheets of his vulnerable kingdom, I've been working on a series of Scheherazade poems for over 20 years now. Or do I only feel this way now because her story has always been lingering in the back of my imagination? In any case, she's part of me now. But what a horrific position to be in, I always thought but didn't it turn out to be symbolic for how I often feel myself. She was surely a beautiful, brave and very smart cookie. And Scheherazade always fascinated me in a somewhat trepidatious way. Seuss, and two Disney albums about the 1001 Arabian Nights. I once had a pretty fine collection of Disney storyteller records as a kid (technically they're still with me in the garage) and a slew of other storytelling records like Aesop's Fables, Dr. So I've been writing and thinking about Scheherazade for quite a long time. These poems (and all fairy tale poems past Transformations) owes a debt of thanks to Anne Sexton who wrote the masterpiece of a mashup between the world of fairy tales and grim(m) reality. I was very short on time this year and this opportunity presented itself as a way to still participate in NaPoWriMo 2021 by editing one poem every day, just like Scheherazade. This project is more of an editing adventure in order to salvage (and retool) a very old stack of poems (with some added new ones).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |