Tuesday, February 28, 2017

OTI:five poems and notes:2/28/17

Open To Interpretation

Guardians

The days come and go
Like moving clouds' shadows
Over the scenes below.
A few to my right
And to my left
I can see,
I know there are more
Besides me.
We take it all in
And contemplate,
Permanent as we are.
Dread the day
When we take wing.

Gum

I fell asleep
With my gum
And now it's there
In my tum.

It's Okay

Oh,
It's okay
To name your rock band
Tame, Timid,
Civilized, Devout,
Virgin, Prude.
I could go on,
As they do,
List,
Announcing who they are
With screams and shouts.
And whose to say
Lullabies are fey?
It's okay.

Luck

Oh,
We all pray sometime,
Buy a lotto ticket
At least one time.
Luck's wisdom can
Sometime finds us,
So we've heard.

Match

"I've need of another author."
Said Nemo,
"If you will, Melville,
Have a seat beside
Our navigator."
Melville sat beside Verne,
With a quizzical look.
Verne looked like a cat
Seeing a mouse.
"And you, Dana,
Stand behind
With close regard,
Triplicate doesn't hurt."
Continued Nemo,
"I've need of your
Editorial prowess.
What presents, shortly,
Before my navigator,
Must be absolutely identical.
When the three of you
See the two shows match perfectly,
Okay, we go.
Some copy error,
And there's no telling
When we'll be.
My navigator knows these ropes,
As ropes they are,
To then and there,
So, list to his advances."
Dana and Melville felt the fools,
Petra smiled, said,
"You two will do."
She turned to Nemo,
"We go see now?"
"Surely," said Nemo
And led Petra's troop
Up to the Nautilus'
Two windows.
And the Nautilus
Left off from Harbor's wharf,
Beneath sleeping Volcano Never,
Into the center of the bay,
And sank
And sank
And sank
One mile
Two
Three
Four
Five,
"I see one!"
Said Queequig.
"Just so," said Nemo
"Be ready below!" he called to his crew,
And the Nautilus neared the
Black Rose.
Black Roses float about
In the deepest ocean depths,
Some small, some large,
All of a size to dwarf the Nautilus.
The Nautilus neared
And the Rose
Shimmered brighter its
Bioluminescent colors,
Deep reds greens blues.
Petra sang her ocean tune.
"Hold the railings for the bump!"
Said Nemo.
They availed the railings before
The two great round windows.
"Navigator, with the Match!"
Nemo shouted down.
"Looks good, and you?"
Said Verne to Melville.
Melville studied the Black Hull
Before them,
One Black Rose image
Was beside another,
But were different
Reds greens blues,
And then coincided and superimposed.
"Dana, you see?" said Verne.
"Yes!" said Dana, "the same!"
"We all agree?" said Verne.
"Yes!" said Dana and Melville.
"Match!" Verne called out.
And the Nautilus leaped
Into a petal of the Black Rose,
Knocked Dana to his butt,
And popped out another petal
Of another Black Rose.
And the Nautilus
Went up and up and up,
And surfaced in the bay,
Volcano Never overhead
Smoking and fuming.
Nautilus pulled up to
A long thin dock,
All there was then
Where Harbor's Village
And wharf is now.

DolphinWords

Notes: Guardians...hmmph....Gum...for fun...It's Okay...I've got a ticket to Shiny Toy Guns this Friday!...Carah Faye!...at the Regency Theater in LA...it says GA, general admission, no seat number, and is a resale, and a bit in doubt, I looked up youtube for a band performance there that would show the seating...it's free standing like the echoplex!...so, a thought to get there early...make a long day of it and take in some of the museums, I'm thinking...as it happened, the band I happened on just to see the interior of the theater, is a 'grindcore' band...surely, the genre that is giving Pat Robertson, and the President, pause!...rock and roll band names are like race horses' names are like video games' toons names...everyone of those names I just came up with casually off the top of my head, are in fact names of real bands...did the web searches...even 'It's okay'...even, sort of, Lullabies are Fey...searching that, I found the tales of the album "Lullabies From The Axis Of Evil"...

quote

Lullabies from the Axis of Evil (2004) is an album collecting traditional lullabies sung by women from Iraq, Iran, and North Korea ("the axis of evil"), as well as Syria, Libya, and, Cuba ("beyond the axis of evil"), plus Afghanistan and Palestine, mixed with Western performers singing translated versions of the songs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lullabies_from_the_Axis_of_Evil

unquote

hmmph...Luck...hmmph...Match...these posts go on as reading back over them the old efforts compel me to continue least they become lost loves but they put me in a box everyday not knowing what to continue to say until I improvise some escape, and so another, as Hemingway might say...oh, I lost the quote...one fellow went on that a writer should never know for sure what they are going to write next, and that's so, I find...it is improvisation, much, somewhat like the Drew Carey wonderful comedy Show...

:)

DavidDavid





Sunday, February 26, 2017

OTI:three poems and notes:2/26/17

Open To Interpretation

Pip's Song

Deep within the
Deep blue sea
Swim the finny fish,
And deeper still
In the inky deepest depths
The Black Roses of Time drift.

The Library of Eternity

The interior
Was steampunk furnished,
Much velvet upholstered seats,
Reds greens blues;
The Nautilus decorated with Nemo's
Favorite treasures:
Paintings, antiques, bric a brac.
Petra smiled,
"You have Black Dragons' tastes."
"Yes, for music too...some songs
For sometime?" Nemo asked.
Melville took note of a crewman
Reading at his station.
"Verne?" Melville asked.
"Shhh..." said Verne.
Nemo swept his hand
Over the hull wall
In front of Verne
And the book page disappeared,
And appearing were countless book
Titles on ornate
Covers and end bindings.
"Eternity's Library," said Nemo,
And singled out Aeschylus.
"The Nautilus' hull wall is like a Black Deck!"
Said Melville.
"It is a Black Deck," said Nemo,
"The Nautilus is a Black Ship,
These accoutrements for our comforts
Mere equipage."
Nemo touched the Black Hull
And Verne's book
Retuned to view.
Nemo smiled to Verne and said,
"Far be it from me
To interrupt you."

Things

The why of things
Is not always determined.
No matter,
Save to those
Who would know how they arrive.

DolphinWords

Notes: hmmph...midnightmovie last night was Prometheus2012, Ridley Scott's take...one might think I lifted things from this for Black Ship lore, as there are Black Deckish scenes...no, I hadn't seen it, though I have seen Alien, and some of the sequels movies, which indeed this one is a precursor...and well done, though much lifted from the first one!, Alien1979!...and of course every movie with an alien ship, or planet, has 'discovery'...my deepest influences being Nemo explaining the Nautilus in Disney's 20,000 Leagues1954, and Morbius explaining the Krell and their technology in Forbidden Planet1956...standard lore for every sci fi buff!...I add little new, only revel in the old notions!...rip Bill Paxton...while living with my sister, we had watched all our video tapes multiple times, and when asking which one to watch, again, it was often, 'oh, put Twister on, again!'...

:)

DavidDavid

Saturday, February 25, 2017

OTI:three poems and notes:1/25/17

Open To Interpretation

John Oliver Reviews
Prometheus Bound

Might and Violence!
Holy shit!
You go, Aeschylus
You go!

Humility

Unfortunate it seems
To the proud
That to be humble
One has had to be
Humiliated.


With

Melville sat on the edge of the
Wharf
At Harbor beneath
Volcano Never
And read a
Book,
Prometheus Bound by
Aeschylus.
A sunny day,
And his wide brimmed hat
Shaded his
Eyes,
So bound to his reading,
He didn't notice
Nemo, Petra, Ishmael, Dana,
Queequig and Pip
All trooping
By
On their way to board
The Nautilus.
Thereabout,
Ned had cleared a long space
Along the wharf
In the hurly burly of
Crewman loading supplies.
The bundles of
Black Ship Harpoons
Had caught his eye
And he thought to give
Some impromptu lessons
To green crew members,
The noobs.
Some empty barrels for targets,
A long way off
Down the wharf,
Made for the demonstration.
"Trick is," said Ned,
"Trick is to learn
Not to knock the barrels over,
Or make them go 'poof'."
In a quick motion
Ned grabbed a harpoon
Flung it
And a barrel went 'poof'
In a corposant flash and boom
That consumed both
Barrel and harpoon.
"Black Ship Harpoons
Feel what you feel."
Said Ned.
"Times are when you'll
Want your target to go poof
But for that
You must conquer your fears.
In the distance,
Nemo with the rest
Neared the barrels.
"Captain!" Ned called out,
"If you will?"
Nemo stood
Before a barrel,
And in one motion
Ned grabbed a harpoon and
Flung it.
In a rush
It rode the air,
But nearing Nemo
It slowed like an arrow
Reaching the apex
Of a straight up flight
And fell to the wharf
At Nemo's feet.
"Harpoons retain
Black Ships' oneness."
Said Ned.
"A harpoon will feel
What you feel,
Even think what
You think,
Obediently.
If you want something
Dead
So it will be."
The crewmen held their
Harpoons,
Black, thin, slender,
Like giant bee stingers,
With wonder.
Nemo and the rest joined
Ned, Queequig carrying
The harpoon
Ned had thrown.
"Just so!" said Queequig,
And in one motion
Flung out the harpoon
That flew in a rush
Over the wharf
Passed the barrels
Tracking further on
Melville seated,
Snatched his hat, spearing it,
And returned to Queequig's catch.
Queequig stood,
Harpoon, with hat on its tip,
Upright in his hand.
Melville hopped up
And ran to them,
Annoyed.
"I have need of that."
Said Melville,
And snatched his hat back.
"Just so," said Nemo,
"You're coming with
The rest of us."

DolphinWords

Notes: It only took about the time the dryers took to dry my clothes at the laundromat, while I sat in Silver, my jeep, listening to radio songs, to read Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus (translated by David Grene)...the old Greek plays are all fairly short...and I was immediately taken by Might and Violence...characters with such names!...the cohorts of Zeus, newly empowered to rule the universe after the Titanomachy, the war with the Titans...

quote

Might and Violence, in you the command of Zeus has its perfect fulfillment: in you there is nothing to stand in its way.

unquote

Holy Shit!, I found myself saying with John Oliver's incredulity, this is all about regime change!...the literal story, is of course, Prometheus gifting humanity with fire, and all things, in opposition to Zeus, who on his new throne, would just as soon humanity wasn't around!...

quote

For the mind of Zeus is hard to soften with prayer and every ruler is harsh whose rule is new.

unquote

yes, we've got that part, John Oliver!...sheesh...Humility...debasement, the more painful the better, seems to have no limit...went on a lookabout, and considered many Prometheus takes, one a midnightmovie, Prometheus1998, which was free on my paid for amazon prime video...I shouldn't have watched this...now I cant get it out of my head...the dialog...it's all done in couplet rhymed poetry...brb...oh, one reviewer wrote a short doggerel poem in imitation for a pan review, and that was all...With...and so I include the name of the book Melville is reading...some interior debate as to the why of this...but being 'book bound' is not unlike having had Hephaestus chain one up!...and Queequig a fine Hercules...when he and Ishmael sign aboard the Peqoud in Moby Dick1956, one of my all time favorite movie scenes!...hmmph... 

:)

DavidDavid





Tuesday, February 21, 2017

OTI:nine poems and notes:2/21/17

Open To Interpretation

Pharmacy

My poems make people
Sleepy and lazy.
We all offer something
From our own pharmacy.

Lift Off

I sat at desks
On chairs
Even laid back
And student listened.
Good at that
Being quiet, attentive.
My hand finds
The controlling disc
Of the theater lounge chair
And it reclines.
One by one we all
Like spacefarers preparing
For lift off in our rocket,
Ready for what?

Something

"Someone might
Find something,
You never know."
I suppose,
But I've turned my paintings
To the walls for now.

I Can't

Your "I can't"
Mirrored in
My "I can't"
I heard myself say
And saw too in their
Disappointment
My dismay.

Eight Minutes

I've set my timer
For eight minutes,
Just the length
Of a high school
Basketball game quarter.
Enough,
Otherwise I'd go on and on,
Fool that I am.

Holmes

Oh
All of them are but moths
Batting about the porch light
Radiance
Of the great Sherlock Holmes.

Idols

It's fine
To fall in love with your teacher
Or as a fan
Give all your attention
To your beloved star
But
They, they just don't
Know you're even around.
Some blessing,
A wave,
A chaste kiss,
Some simple tokens
Of their affections
Decorate your memory,
The walls of your home.
Not likely
You'll find them beside you
As you put mornings behind you.

Free Jesus

We need Hercules
To come along
And take Jesus down from there.
Like Prometheus' Eagle
The priests worry that side wound
Perpetually reading His liver
On a silver salver
And putting it back
For tomorrows.

Where

Much as a horse
Has a saddle
To facilitate a human mount
So Black Ships have their equipage,
Riggings, furnishings, stores;
Fashioned, supplied, brought aboard
By human shipwrights.
The pale Argo's equipage
A shambles
In the aftermath
Of the Black Dragons' harvest.
As Argo recovered,
Much of the wreckage
Slowly extruded into the sea.
"It's still here."
Said Jason, beside Glauce,
Beside Argo's prow.
They'd come aboard
To retrieve the Talking Plank
Before departing with the Greeks
On King Alcinous' Black Ship.
"Here is here
And there is there"
Said the Plank,
"And where is where."
"Stay behind,"
Said Athena.
"The Argo drifts
But not for long."
The Ravens and Gulls,
The Parrots too,
Making a ruckus
In Black Ship Argo's
Dangling rigging,
The Black Deck,
Absent scrubbing crew,
A mess as usual.
Jason looked to Glauce
With a wan smile,
"There's just us two,
And work to do."
"A crew?  I'll loan you a few."
A voice came from over the side.
Jason and Glauce hurried
To the railing to see.
"Ariadne!" said Jason and Glauce.
Ariadne climbed aboard
With her girls.
"Theseus is a fug head."
Said Ariadne.
"Where Greeks go
Is where Greeks go.
And we're here
Not there."
"Just so!"
Said Jason and Glauce.

DolphinWords

Notes: Pharmacy...Picasso noted that his paintings will have arrived when they fix a toothache...Lift Off...went to the midnightmovies and saw Triple xxx, van diesel...he carries a movie easy, and it needed carrying!...Something...snipped from a conversation...I Can't...Something filled out...Eight Minutes...rhymed fool and school again...Holmes...Elementary (tv cbs show) in the latest episode, in the interrogation room exposition rap up, floated the notion that the famous chaos butterfly notion in Lost World, they even referenced Lost World, can work in reverse...as a butterfly might stir up a hurricane, so a hurricane might stir up a butterfly...that's close to describing what a hyperobject does, or a Greek god, if it can be said I even have a clue of what either of those are!...and Holmes here is the seminal detective...Idol...a reach...Free Jesus...I give a wide berth to contemporary religions, politics, history...much prefer the past...but the past is so much like the present...have a look at Kaiser Wilhelm II...it's scary!...a midnight movie the other night was St. Francis of Assisi 1961...on youtube...much romantic sentimentality, until one reads the bio of the actress Dorothy Hart...Pope may have been right...she is St. Clare!...I thought to look up the medallions of Francis and Clare...Francis often depicted with a deer, a dove...and in Clare's hand something I had to research...it looked like a lantern, but it is something called a monstrance...this set me off on a wild web hunt...near as I can tell, the wafer is resting not on an upturned crescent moon, but rather bulls' horns, and if so, then it is indeed a Catholic borrowing of an Old Egyptian icon, a bull's horns holding the sun disc in Isis' headdress...of course, the little crescent can be thought to just be that shape for the utilitarian purpose of holding the wafer...even so, the whole notion of what the wafer is about in the monstrance is fantastic...hmmph...a corposant!...:)...anyway, I'm reading Prometheus Bound...I must have read it long ago, and it subliminally came to the fore when I wrote up my little play, Women Can Do No Wrong...I made my chains on Zeus adamantine...just thought it sounded cool...but Aeschylus did too!(or the translator)...Prometheus is chained down with adamantine chains, by Hephaestus no less, who is apologetic...and I got to thinking about all the heroes and heroines that get chained down, or up....hence Free Jesus...I knew Prometheus has his liver being forever eaten by an Eagle, but I didn't know the spear wound of Jesus is over the liver...or that livers are noted for their regenerative properties!...such the scholars go back and forth over much!...Where...thought to keep Jason and Glauce, then Ariadne and her girls, around...ral...and fill the plot hole of what the 'sons of Poseidon' were about back at Pegasae...'equipage' reference Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens...second day in a poetry class, going over this poem, teacher asked if I knew what 'equipage' meant...hmmph...it was sort of my first impression of what accepted poems look and sound like, and kind of stuck...don't know but Stevens borrowed from Hokusai 36 Views of Mt. Fuji...as I have from both in the Black Tales...

:)

DavidDavid

Saturday, February 18, 2017

OTI:two poems and notes:2/18/17

Open To Interpretation

Play

Did they say,
"The Cathedrals are ostentatious,
Monet."?
More than a few
See Adams in you,
The play of Light.
I tell you, inside
My head's like Night,
A moonless forest,
And I have just a flashlight.
A gallery my brain
To make The Louvre
Mundane,
The Valley a strip mall.
You'd both on that agree,
Setting your tripods
Up inside me.
Pretentious I'm being
As all we are reading
The play of Thought.

Upside Down

Oh
I can't say a thing
Without it being
Upside down
Of what I feel.
If I knelt,
Would that work?
And introduce my
Sincere opposite,
Humility?
Would you take me for that?
Not likely.

DolphinWords

Notes: reference Claude Monet and his paintings of  Rouen Cathedral, reference Ansel Adams and Zones...

:)

DolphinWords

Friday, February 17, 2017

OTI:two poems and notes:2/17/17

Open To Interpretation

Dreadful

Petra and Ishmael
Sat by the Creek on a boulder,
Lost in thought,
Their bare feet dangling in the water.
Dana came along
And slowed his pace
And stopped quiet
So as to not disturb their
Reverie.
A family of ducks swimming
Brought Dana to their attention
And they smiled shyly.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
Said Dana.
"Oh, oh, it was my being dreadful
That I put to sea to be away from."
Said Ishmael.
"Shipboard I was with my like,
In town, dangerously strange."
"Just so, I too,"
Said Dana.
"After my fashion,
Left off town for the sea."
"And he was dreadful
When I found him,"
Said Petra.
"And his companions!
All washed up they were
On a wild shore,
So much debris from some great storm."
"And now?" said Dana.
"Now, "
Said Petra,
"Now the sea
A shady creek
With murmuring ducks."
Dana sat down
And took off his socks
And cowhide boots,
The Creek numbing cold to his toes.
"Have we left off with adventuring?"
Said Dana.
"Not likely!" said Pip
Bounding about the Creek stones,
Quequig following on.
"Nemo comes."
Said Pip,
"And Nemo ignores Time."
"Where away?" said Ishmael.
Nemo stood before them,
Arms akimbo.
"'Tis the season, and the time,
To gather black roses,
And neither here or now
But then and there
Grow such flowers."
Sang Pip.
"Just so," said Nemo,
"Have you three, Time,
Or is this Creek side dalliance
Eternity?"
Petra smiled.  Pip and Quequig feeling left out.
"Of course." said Nemo.
"We're off!" Said Petra. "I must tell Pet!"
"No need," said Nemo,
"The Nautilus and I
We'll have you five
All back before now!"

Pierre

Poe said,
"Hmmmph!  And just like that
He filled the plot hole: whence came Ishmael?"
"Rescued by Nemo?" said Twain,
"Across Time?"
The under the Dodona Oak gathered
All looked at Verne.
Twain said,
"Time Travel isn't in your oeuvre!
And yet,
You had a countryman,
Surely his efforts in you notes.
I just gave a sleeping pill to my Yankee.
And you, Poe, well,
What can I say,
You're my countryman."
Everyone turned from Verne, to Poe, then Twain,
Then, eyes wide and innocent,
They all leaned back like poker players
Caught with cards up their sleeves.
"Oh, haven't we all,
Now and then,
Found a book, a note, something,
From the museum of eternity,
Timeless as it is?
Everyone swiveled about to hear,
And see, Boitard's sudden appearance.
"Just so,"
Said Verne, smiling.
"Pierre is a fine name."

DolphinWords

Notes: reference the movie The Black Rose...reference Pierre Boitard, (surely Verne knew of him!?), reference Pierre Aronnax, Verne's professor aboard the Nautilus...reference Twain's Connecticut Yankeee in King Arthur's  Court, Poe's Pym, reference Melville Moby Dick, chapter 44 (I recall a passage that suggested Moby Dick had been seen in two different places at the same time, but I'm likely confabulating the Sufi notion of a guide being in two places at the same time)...reference James Gleick's new book, Time Travel: A History...Gleick found as I did in my brief web search, in the literature, the notion is very recent, like  the words 'time' and 'travel' are never seen together, and 'machine' added by H. G. Wells...once that happened...Pierre is Peter in French, the masculine of feminine Petra...ral...

quote

Polyphemus asks Odysseus his name, and Odysseus replies that his name is "Utis" (ουτις), which translates as "No-man" or "No-body". In the Latin translation of the Odyssey, this pseudonym is rendered as "Nemo", which in Latin also translates as "No-man" or "No-body".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea

unquote

:)

DavidDavid

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

OTI:two poems and notes:2/15/17

Open To Interpretation

Fire And Smoke

And the Greeks' Black Ships,
Current dragged,
Arrived at the Northern Reach shore
Beside the pale Black Ship Argo.
In the fog, the crews all clambered
Overboard in their bands
And willy nilly, fog blind,
Bumped into one another.
Swords were drawn,
Harpoons at the ready,
But the sheer confusion
Of circumstance
Stayed their hands.
The sun like a silver shining shield
Began to glow from above
As the fog lifted somewhat
Becoming the wild scene's roof.
"Have you a tune to charm Greeks
As well as Black Dragons,
Orpheus?" said Jason.
Jason's band had arrived
From raiding Onyx's Tower
To the sea bluff
Overlooking the Greeks below.
Before Orpheus could answer,
Quequig's Harpoon took
The Lyre from his hands
And pinned it to the ground.
Ishmael astride Black Dragon Beryl,
His harpoon across his lap,
Looked on. Following on,
Petra and her crew gathered about
Ishmael and Beryl,
Harpoons at the ready.
"Leave in peace." said Petra.
"Would that we could," said Glauce.
"Black Ship Argo is pale,
Creon, my father,
Would have Medea's head,
And those Greeks below
Would have the Sword and Sandals,
To say nothing of the Fleece."
"Like a seaweed tangled pile
Rotting, these Greeks bring
Black lies like flies
To our shores."
Said Onyx, returned from
Dragon Hold.
"Take your compatriots with."
Said Onyx.
From behind Petra's crew
Pausias and those Greeks with him
Came forward and joined
Jason and his bunch.
Recognition dawned among
The Greeks on the bluff
And on the beach
As they saw old friends,
Old enemies,
All a welcomed sight in a far away land.
Neither Minos nor Theseus could
Stay them from setting
Aside their weapons
To greet and meet.
Distracted so, their Black Ships unguarded
Were easily boarded by the
Crews from Black Ships
Liz and Medea,
Calypso and Nemo overseeing.
"Where is Medea?" said Creon.
"Better to ask where you are."
Said Petra.
Creon thought,
"Just so." said Creon.
"Glauce, we leave off dragging
The Golden Fleece about,
Better friend the Black Dragons,
And leave the Fleece,
And Medea, in their care."
Glauce hugged her father,
And with Jason embraced.
"Not empty handed you leave us,
The Sword and Sandals take with you."
Said Petra,
"What is yours is yours."
"Hmmph." Onyx said,
And snorted smoke
And fire and roared.

Home Again

It was crowded aboard
King Alcinous Black Ship
But it was larger than
Most Black Ships
And accommodated
All the Greeks on the gallop
Back to the Little Middle Sea,
Odysseus the last to be
Set ashore on Ithaca,
Home again.

DolphinWords

Notes: hmmph...like putting flowers in a vase!

:)

DavidDavid

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

OTI:six poems and notes:2/14/17

Open To Interpretation

Dragon Gates

Dragon gates
Open and close
To tidal fates.

Dragon fates
An opening moon rose
Between Dragon mates.

Dragon mates
One to one chose
To enter Dragon gates.

Well

Well,
I keep dropping these coins
In the Koi fountain pool
To not a sound
Or a ripple
And Phyrne
Standing a statue still.

Koi Fish

The Koi fish
Always hungry
My packet of food
For them
Never enough.

Black Angels

Knee bent to the Black Deck
The Greek crew scrubbed and sang,
Minos and Pasiphae beside them.
"So dearest,
Where away?"
Said Minos to Pasiphae.
"Now we're beyond the Pillars.
To a northern land,
It is Raven said,
Theseus and Daedalus retreat."
Said Pasiphae.
"Squeaked intelligence from these Greeks
Has it Theseus seeks
The Sword and Sandals
From Athens stolen
By a Black Dragon."
Said Minos.
"These Ravens are taciturn
And lead us on
On our course
Avenging our son
Asterion, slain by Theseus,
To fulfill their own design."
Said Pasiphae.
"What design can Ravens have
Aside from pecking our corpses?"
Said Minos.
"A god's,"
Said Pasiphae
"So favored are the sky's
Diminutive black angels.
Asterion was Poseidon's offspring,
As well as ours,
And he too would have Athens be his family;
His ambitions and ours one,
Carried onward by this Black Ship."

Asterion

Knee bent, Ariadne and her girls
Sang, and scrubbed the Black Deck,
Theseus and Daedalus beside them.
"You needn't have slain him,
You know." said Daedalus.
"How was I to know?
So well you fashioned
That bullish mask."
Said Theseus.
"It was all a drama"
Said Daedalus,
"To celebrate a once a seven year
Alignment of the stars and moon.
Just so the Minotaur's name
Was Asterion, 'starry'.
We gave you a ball of yarn,
We gave them all balls of yarn,
So to dance the labyrinth,
Reach the Minotaur,
His starry mystery,
And return.
Ariadne's brother he was
And slain you would be now
Save her love for you is so."
"You say I must encourage her love
Least I come to that?"
Said Theseus.
"Just saying," said Daedalus.
"Now, from behind,
Approaches your other concern."
"On the horizon I see too,
It's another Black Ship!"
Said Theseus.
From the masthead,
The lookout shouted down the news.
"Minos and Pasiphae pursue,"
Said Ariadne to her crew.
"All hands on the Black Deck
And receive your battle commands."

Work Finished

Work finished,
Resting on their buckets
The Phaeatian crew of
King Alcinous' Black Ship
With Odysseus and Nausicaa too,
The Deck polished and cleaned.
The Black Ship galloped,
It's thunder cloud squall
Keeping pace
Across an otherwise blue blue sea,
Save in the distance.
"Storm ahead!"
The lookout from the masthead
Called down.
The horizon black
Giant thunderheads swirling
To tornado winds
Lighting incessant flashing.
"Black Ships at war."
Murmured the Phaeatian crew
All aside the railing watching.
"We sail into a storm
The likes of which I've never seen."
Said Odysseus.
"Just so,
And now our crew battle prepares."
Said Nausicaa.
"No need." said Athena.
Quiet as an Owl,
She had arrived on the Black Deck
Astride one of Helios' chariot Dragons.
"It would be remiss to defy
The Great Black Squid's entreat:
'No war between Black Ships,
Only Greeks'." said Athena.
The air a sudden damp and cold,
The black sails slack,
Grey fog rolling over the blue sea.
The thunder on the horizon ceased,
Silent fell the sea under the fog shroud
And strong now the current
Carrying the three Black Ships,
Fog bound, to the Northern Reach.
And as quiet as she came,
Athena on her Dragon departed.

DolphinWords

Notes: reference Asterion the Minotaur...hmmph...only 39 Asterions on WOW, and not all of them Taurens!...and just 8 Phyrne!...hmmph...

quote

A Knossian didrachm exhibits on one side the labyrinth, on the other the Minotaur surrounded by a semicircle of small balls, probably intended for stars; one of the monster's names was Asterion ("star").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minotaur#Interpretations

unquote


:)

DavidDavid

Thursday, February 9, 2017

OTI:three poems and notes:2/8/17

Open To Interpretation

Coffee

Did an inequality
Bring you your coffee
After you wrote
"this truth"?
Wait, was that drink
Even to your avail?
brb...
"the favorite drink of the civilized world"--Thomas Jefferson

Dragon Hold

From Onyx's back
Medea was taken aback
As they flew near approaching
The Hold, and she gasped
With wonder.
"Your Palace, Queen Medea."
Said Onyx.
Dragon Hold no singular Tower
Like those spread over
The Northern Reach
Surrounded by Villages,
But Towers, Cathedrals,
Palaces, all together
Aglow with Corposant Lanterns,
Arrayed with Dragon Treasures,
Surrounded by a
Great Humankind City.
"The Greeks mustn't see this!"
Said Medea.

Beside

Oh,
I sit beside the Creek
And dally my fingers
Across the reflected surface
Dark greeny sheen
Of Black Oak
Incense Cedar
White Alder
And wonder near
Shakespeare's
Midsummer Night's Dream.

DolphinWords

Notes: reference Thomas Jefferson...reference Midsummers Night's Dream...

This man hath my consent to marry her.
Stand forth, Lysander: and my gracious duke,
This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child;
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchanged love-tokens with my child:
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice verses of feigning love,
And stolen the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats, messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart,
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/midsummer/full.html

:)

DavidDavid

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

OTI:five poems and notes:2/7/17

Open To Interpretation

Grey As Ash

Grey as volcanic ash
And transparent as a wave
Black Ship Argo stood
Off from the seashore
Of the Northern Reach.
The skeleton crew of
Jason's Greeks
Left behind to guard
Fled when the
Black Dragons flew in
And harvested.
Stripped of corposants,
A Black Ship has only with
The Winds and Currents to wander
And slowly replenish as the
Ravens and Gulls
Find happenstance food.
Not a Harpoon by the Greeks flew,
And Black Ship Argo too,
Surprised by the Dragon's swiftness,
Made no response.
Months pass
Before Corposant Lanterns regrow,
Their many colors again
Reflect on Argo's Black Deck,
Now pale.

Make Me Deaf

"Dulcinea,"
Said Onyx,
"Make me deaf."
"How so?" said Dulcinea.
"The Flight has disabled the Argo,
Corposants harvested,"
Said Onyx.
"But the bands of Greeks ashore
Grow near, and the Flight dare not,
For fear.
That instrument."
"Orpheus Lyre," said Pausias.
"The same.  Make me deaf."
Said Onyx.
Dulcinea could only think to do injury
And hesitated.
"Your wax, Pausias."
Said Medea.
"Hurry, the Flight too bold
Is now enthralled,
And strains I begin to hear."
Said Onyx.
Pausias took the hot
Prepared bee's wax for his painting
And poured it into Onyx's ear canals
As Onyx lowered his head.
Onyx snorted flame and smoke
And roared, Pausias blown back
On his butt, eyebrows singed.
"Medea, Dulcinea, with me,"
Said Onyx, and thought,
"Benitoite too,
Bring your son, Medea."
The two hopped aboard Onyx,
Benitoite nestled between
Dulcinea and Medea.
And the double Dragon Doors
Of the Tower's Great Room were opened.

Black Olives

Black Dragons were everywhere,
Radiating outward and immobile,
Like a basket of black olives
Spilled on the snow.
"Are they alive?"
Said Dulcinea.
"I don't know, and now too
I hear the lyre." said Medea.
"And strangely so,
Only one melody bar
That keeps repeating."
With her legs
Dulcinea told Onyx to
Keep circling
As she and Medea tried
To discern what was below.
"I see no Greeks." said Medea.
"Some mystery this,
All the Dragons transfixed."
"Go see!" Dulcinea urged Onyx on
And they descended quickly
To the center of the scene.

Something Hephaestus Made

"Something Hephaestus made,"
Said Medea,
And kicked the thing,
And the one bar melody ceased.
The Northern Black Dragons
Released from the one bar tune
Pulled in close around
Onyx, Medea, and Dulcinea.
Onyx scratched at his ear
With his foot.
"Wait," said Dulcinea.
"This will take a bit."
She made a fire with her kit,
And with a flaming torch
Warmed Onyx's ears
As he turned his head
This way and that.
Onyx snorted flame and smoke
And roared.
"Hmmph," said Onyx,
"Now a life of monkish silence
Dragons seek,
And all because of these Greeks.
Enough of human tunes and treasures.
Medea, they have the Tower,
The Sword, the Sandals, the Fleece,
Such was Pausias' deceit."
"Just so,"said Medea.
"The Northern Flight goes now
To our Dragon Hold,"
Said Onyx,
"And learns the path of the deaf.
There we will think this through
And see our way."
Medea hopped aboard Onyx's neck.
"Dulcinea?  Come with?" said Medea.
"I am Petra,
Queen of the Southern Flight,
They must be warned."
Said Dulcinea.
"Just so, my grandson Ametrine
In your care,"
Said Onyx,
"And those who care for you
Draw near."
Medea thought, and said,
"Take Benitoite with you
Away from these Greek dangers."
"Just so," said Dulcinea.
Onyx opened his wings,
Lifted off,
And the whole of the
Northern Black Dragon Flight
Followed on upwards from the snow
With a great roar.

Leave It To Rust

Quequig gave Dulcinea
A hug
And set her down beside Ishmael.
"What is it?" said Ishmael,
As they examined Hephaestus'
Mechanical lyre.
"I know not,"
Said Dulcinea,
"A bane to Dragons
And to us as well.
Leave it to rust."
And Dulcinea with her crew,
All singing, Benitoite delighted,
Seated in Quequig's backpack,
Returned to Black Ship Liz
Waiting by the seashore
Of the Northern Reach.

DolphinWords

Notes: hmmph...update1/9: Quequig's backpack...

:)

DavidDavid

Monday, February 6, 2017

OTI:two poems and notes:2/6/17

Open To Interpretation

No

Ya gonna drag me down?
Don't ya know
It'll be me
Dragon your heart around.
My bad reputation
Can make separation.
No no no no no no no no.

Sardines

Oh
Sardines
A bottle of beer
And your tongue in my ear.


DolphinWords

Notes: hmmph...reference Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty, Keep Dragging My Heart Around...and Joan Jett, Bad Reputation...there's a word for it...'verbing'...for making nouns into verbs...my double word notion is about the interplay of noun and verb...touchtouch...dragondragon...daviddavid!...I could do a lot of sardines and beer poems...reference Omar Khayyam...

Khayyám, who stitched the tents of science,
Has fallen in grief's furnace and been suddenly burned,
The shears of Fate have cut the tent ropes of his life,
And the broker of Hope has sold him for nothing!

and, of course,

A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
 A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread—and Thou,
Beside me singing in the Wilderness,
 And oh, Wilderness is Paradise enow.

:)

DavidDavid

Thursday, February 2, 2017

OTI:two poems and notes:2/2/17

Open To Interpretation

Warm

It's cold outside.
Yes,
And I find a folding chair
And sit right beneath
The propane heater
Lantern on a pole,
And listen.

Applause

Together
I clap thin poetry books
Together
Like seals their flippers.
Oh, together,
What we shared
For sardines and
A bottle of beer
Together.

Notes: at the Orange County Poetry readings when there's a slam, each poet gets three turns...one did well the first round, then asked to come up to continue, they refused...they didn't have more poems, or were shy, whatever...'extemporize' I called out, but no luck...walking back to the car, I wondered if I could have 'extemporized', and thought one up...Warm...I had gone back inside with my pizza and fettuccini, just before the start, as it was cold waiting, and one of the poets took note and gave me a headsup to come back...nice...didn't stay for the prize award, and more readings, tangled up myself with my own thoughts...there are calls going out for 'resistance' and such...a smile to see park rangers getting uppity...where you been all this time!?...anyway, I don't want folk chanting my name...so a bit shy on the rebellious pursuit...upshot of which is often besmirched reputations in a time when reputations mean a paycheck and food on the table...wouldn't want someone starving on my account...poems don't put bread on the table...nonetheless...been there and done that...hence Applause, a reminisce...

:)

DavidDavid