National Poetry Month

[brigdh]

Apotropaic Magic by Margaret Wack

I am the king's daughter slaughtered.

I am a thrall, enthralled, I charm the ocean

into calmness and surcease. I am

a witchwood, hazel woman

smooth as flesh, woven and crafted

and cast from the cliff.

I am a carven queen, a saint,

a pretty thing to bless the ship

with good luck and swift passage.

What do you hope to turn away?

You know that blood must bless the sea,

you people of the shores and crags

and salt-strewn settlements forget slowly:

the ceremony stands: I go before you as a sacrifice

and sink through brine and black water

and plant my feet upon a field

of blue-faced girls who bloom and snarl:

we are your legacy, your lineage, your litany,

the faces that will eat you when you drown.

Comments

[hamsterwoman]

I really like this one, the imagery and the theme both!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Isn't it great? I really love it!

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

LOVE THIS.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

:D

[egelantier.livejournal.com]

Hannah Jones, 'From The Prow Of The Argos'

Across the great glittering sea I watched you
cutting to pieces the body of your brother --
barely blushed with manhood, young and soft
as a child, with only the sun on his cheeks --
and, throwing the fingers over to the water
and to the fish and to your father close behind --
why was it I felt no great shudder then
beyond the lurch of the waves against the boat,
no dread tremble in my belly, knowing as I knew
what it was you could do with your two red hands?

Oh, it's the fate of men: to see no shores beyond the one
to which they are at the one moment rowing!

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh that is fantastic. I'll have to save it for next year! :D