Category: Mythology


There I Met a Storm

she turns the emperor on his head
as the sun penetrates the forest canopy
I listen for the sounds
wild reparations offered for all the blood

scanning for (in situ) signs of life
a heartbeat pumping in searing words
brazenly on a hot pressed page
wood transmuted, only resurrected with her name

surface so smooth that everything slides
liquid nitrogen cooled tongues
slipping from cottonmouths
stained only by washes
of colorful trauma

mineral night rising, a phosphorescent outcry
burning chemical fire layer by layer
until our skin becomes as
ineffectual as the paper
she wrote the truth upon

hush imbued atmosphere descends,
a pernicious intent
poet tells me, ‘every angel is awful’
not mine, lord,
not mine

I saw her at the dawning
and in the glimmer of his oceanic love
her joy lighting candles
in the holy of holies
that day I stood in the temple
in the land of the sandsky
(where I never could have entered before)

murmuring supplications
with an apotropaic wand
against the inevitable dark

secret cinematic sounds delivered
in the tone of teenage apathy
Video Games plays in the acoustic hollow
of a phoenix’s breastbone
an echoic pleading
one skin to another

I held her in the birthing
and in the slow murder of life
in her incandescent light, her
dénouement, her breath infusing
my own, whispering paeans,
singing sighs

Notes: Every Angel is Awful is a book by the French poet, Martine Broda and Video Games is a song by Lana Del Rey.

wolverine

wolverine

I dreamed the animals
brought forth each character
I sang the incantations
brought forth your stories
I tamed the mountain
brought forth every peak
I courted the moon
brought forth her light

solitary trickster
intelligent fool
my antics amuse
my ferocity quickens
my predator’s blood,
front facing eyes echo
your passions and appetites

I contain no remorse
but birth it
I show no mercy
but inspire it
I will nothing . . .
create and destroy
give and negate
in the hidden shrine
of the Taiga

tearing caribou flesh
hunting the weak
hunting the strong
I am the shaman
of the North

carrion feeder
I fight the bear
I fight the wolves
I traverse the cold
immense miles of cold
silent ice worlds
disturbed only by
the terrible cries
of this impulsive creature

Kuekuatsheu
kway-kwah-choo
Carcajou
koo-a-koo-ott-soo
say my name in
my presence
let your tongue
raise your voice to
the northern lights

within the shaking tent
we contact the spirits
my Innu atanukanas
sing songs of a people
sing songs of everything
I brought into being

Note: This poem was written in response to Victoria’s prompt at dVerse Poets Pub on anaphora poems and utilizes anaphora and epiphora. The title and poem refer to a very famous poem, The Tyger!, by William Blake.

Figuration

van Gogh paints stars on the interior of a hadron collider,
excitation modes divining the luminous day of the psyche,
ebullience of the creative moment as comets seed the earth

kaleidoscopic supersymmetry unveils strange loops,
circumscribed by the calm intelligibility of science
model agnosticism engulfs with purifying fire

in the ascetic refuge of an enchanted forest, imaginarium of enlightenment,
crystalline structures of specificity hide the occlusions of the unconscious,
chaotic clouds of information growing exponentially

Usha’s bifurcated tongue spreads duality across the canvas of the mind
sand shifting at the garden’s gate, encoding cryptic messages,
erosive ablutions upon the glittering souls of the dead

across the deep shaded valley starling calls and falcon cries unite
imploding singularity awash in Dionysian pleasure amidst an Apollonian
atmosphere, contrasting Wittgenstein’s necessary silence

Huysum’s flowers scry an ecstatic love, impulses flashing
like jewel inlaid symbols of eternity, cartography of virtuosic ambiguity,
as Richter explicates tragic materiality or sublime interiority

within this vale of soul-making, temporal and inescapable,
poetry’s fountain, a thousand headed hydra, reanimates and reclaims
Renoir’s river runs as the round world spins, days end and the end begins

in this elusive and fragile bubble replete with elaborate honeybee dances
Magritte’s surreal apple exists in its listening room
immortally intoxicated with the mystic universe

Flora (detail from Primavera) Botticelli

Flora (detail from Primavera) Botticelli

Yea, in the very moment of possessing,
Surges the heat of lovers to and fro,
Restive, uncertain; and they cannot fix
On what to first enjoy with eyes and hands.
The parts they sought for or those they squeeze so tight
’*

Gentle western wind enamored of her purity
Caught swirling in a fury of passion
Overtaking the nymph of Elysian fields

Perianths cascading from her lips
Dew of heaven, conceived in the womb of earth
Meadows bloom with myriad colors where there was but one

Ephemeral four petal blue flower of alchemy, mystic rose
Eros embraced in the mandala of calyx and corolla
Only her scent remains

Insufflation of Spring’s promise
Bounty, beauty and union abound
Gifts of the goddess framing our pleasure

Notes: *From Of The Nature of Things, by [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius (written in the 1st Century BC) Translator: William Ellery Leonard

snow sends fathomless missives to the ocean
frozen kisses that kindle love
and we become one

storms thunder and unleash rain
born from a mountain glacial lake
in the watery center of my being

across the distance I traverse to you
naturally responding to the power
of your gravitational pull

ebb and flow I travel and remain still
upon a rocky shoreline,
deep current and unending whole

Nine Dragons by Chen Rong, 12th Century

Nine Dragons by Chen Rong, 12th Century

for Dave

In a time when words were like magic,
scintilla, igniting the soul’s spark,
when a person could become an animal
and an animal could shape shift into a man

the Self was an ever changing avatar,
evanescent, unfolding in the storm clouds
hidden in the firestick, a manifested paradox,
alchemical fantasy, a secret backbone,

I ruled the underworld, black as void
my blue flamed breath singeing flesh from skulls
ashen harbinger of death, bearer of detritus,
my treasures of regeneration well-guarded

my dragon form forged star glittering,
damp fiery, cold spirit in the heart
of a supermassive black hole, abyssal afrit,

my wisdom grew over millennia until
one drop of my blood
could transmute fragile flesh
into invincible skin

Notes: This piece is now linked to Meeting the Bar: Atmosphere at dVerse Poets Pub. When writing this poem I wanted to create a feeling of awe, fear, psychological tension, and transformation. To accomplish this I used diction that emphasizes these qualities as well as words that may not be as familiar to readers. My intent was for this exotic language to allow the reader to experience the unknown in the process of engaging the poem. In addition, the setting is darker and spans a great deal of time. Obviously, the environment is influenced by myth and displays a fantastical world. Using a first person persona and an authoritative voice adds to the incantatory feeling of the work which I felt would contribute to a sense of awe. Please let me know your thoughts and feelings about atmosphere and the tools that contribute or detract from it within this work.

Monotype

Dave Yust Chromaxiologic Inclusion 27-6 1/1 2006

Dave Yust Chromaxiologic Inclusion 27-6 1/1 2006

difficult unity of inclusion
contrasts the easy unity
of exclusion, a priori
philosophical stance

equiluminous color
makes visible the unseen,
unobservable phenomena
between something & nothing

broken catenary curves,
inextensible cable
suspended from two points,
a disbelief, a distraction

interplay of geometric
& biomorphic imagery:
complexity & contradiction
spontaneity & continuity

a process of inclusion
chromaxiologic exploration
quick shift in spacetime
to truncate thought

printmaking exemplification
fruitful liberation gained in
finding purpose through chromaphilia,
establishing relationships

Thought Experiment: begin with a cryptographic key life cycle where you function as the key

Key Life Cycle (in developmental phases)

Generation

give birth, bring forth ideas illuminated
in liquidity’s nourishing infrastructure
embody the symbols, imprint the genetic code

Distribution

produce without possession
envision freedom from rationality
educe a contradistinction

Storage

gather the cipher and the subtext
data amassed for encoding
integrate a secret sharing scheme

Usage

excel but do not lead your thoughts
breathe, decrypt the psychological schemas
act without premeditated expectation

Change

assimilate the workings of the universe
puzzle out an esemplastic solution
to unlock strategies of liberation

Destruction

allow entropy to overpower existence
witness the denaturing of mysterious virtue,
for all states are possible in the end

* This poem was influenced by the 10th Chapter (Pacifying the agitated, material soul) of Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu and is a companion piece to Feasting on Shadows. Chromatopia, LLC has just released its first two books of poetry: These Little Episodes and Signal from Static available in e-book and paperback.

Feasting on Shadows

‘Only poets and schizophrenics communicate in a language that defies rational analysis . . .’ Robert Anton Wilson

Here Hypatia approaches the door
the door is an irrelevant detail
unknowable in its true nature

she glimpses her blind spot
(a function usually serviced by love)
or some part of it, partially obscured

to drive home the meaning of paradox
mensurate the distance traversed between
the embodied and ideal

a parsing machine cuts the semantic noise
from intellection’s graceful veil,
stitching the poetic to quantum psychology

is the reality a sinister game or mystic bliss?
opaque liquidity implies motion without clarity
she moves in mysterious ways
pop culture clashes with nuclear glory
amidst the alleluias, seraphic cries
arriving fiery in the ear

perception tilts while memory is reinvented
neurochemicals bind to receptors along new pathways
meaningless speech collides with calcified ‘facts’
in transactional, irrefutable phenomena

spooks that inhibit the limning shadow
recondite specters that haunt her in the night

think wrongly but never not at all

within qubits any state is possible
even that of non-fictitious disinformation

the thoughts of a lobotomized squirrel are more challenging
than the most advanced artificial intelligence
these creatures the post-modern bestiary embody
hidden truths within a cryptographic field

plucked by the talons of eagles
in a shifting, holographic sky
rewiring the flight path in her brain

her mind continues its activity
oblivious to whether it is an immortal soul
traveling through lifetimes or a conduit
of collective unconsciousness

illusions creating a force field
a surrounding state of flow,
a myth her thoughts dreamt,
meta-programming in a biometric system

Nirvikalpa

Nirvikalpa (work in progress) - oil, acrylic and pigment stick on board by Anna Montgomery

Nirvikalpa (work in progress) – oil, acrylic and pigment stick on board by Anna Montgomery

Wandering in the cold choking darkness
blistered fragile feet on eggshells
loneliness is a prison
torn knuckles rapping on bars of isolation

People don’t listen
they just wait for their turn to talk
turn inside and disconnect,
waiting out the storm

Love is a flower unnourished
in this Eden of the heart
weary veins pump a love story untold
searching the hopeless dawn
for a brighter day

Scrying the skies for a star of rebirth
constellate a new form
Dionysus seeks the Gemma of his crown
praying for the piece/peace he’s not yet found

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Ariadne meanders along a path
repeating permutations
of sublimated desires
wound around in concentric circles
on a dancing ground
of intellectual games

The Mistress of the Labyrinth
spins her golden thread,
sutra, to escape the restrictions,
rise above encapsulating
the supreme artistry,
the manifesting order
connecting this world to the eternal –
human to divine

Prophesizing the paradoxes:
multiplicity and unity
imprisonment and liberation
separation and intimacy

Her sussurating heart
beats a transcendent pattern
resounding his true name

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Her heavenly form
celestial symmetry of solace
sanctum of the surrendering heart
eternal peace within her labyrinth
guided by crystal tears
shining beacons
and whispering the luring
language of love

His fertile mind
anacrusis in the symphony
of devouring time
irreplaceable beats of exuberant strength
he initiates a sacred marriage
of Heaven and Earth
eternal taijitu

Swirling whispers in the aether
found two ears
one in the lowlands
one in the mountains
symphony of symbiosis
floating like leaves in the wind
the Sun and Moon
elliptical eclipse
upon the earth dwellers

Raining sensuous energy,
an initiation into sound,
each string taut with potential
striking bell awakening
along the constellated lines
of the subtle body

Eternal vibration of this sacred thunder
resonates between the lovers,
nirvikalpa samadhi unveiled

. . . . . . . . . . . .

Notes: This is a collaborative poem written with David Chamberlain, Jr. for the dVerse Poets Pub prompt on peace. “In Hinduism, when used as a technical term in Raja Yoga, the phrase nirvikalpa samādhi refers to a particular type of samādhi that Heinrich Zimmer distinguishes from other states as follows: Nirvikalpa samādhi, on the other hand, absorption without self-consciousness, is a mergence of the mental activity (cittavṛtti) in the Self, to such a degree, or in such a way, that the distinction (vikalpa) of knower, act of knowing, and object known becomes dissolved — as waves vanish in water, and as foam vanishes into the sea.[3] The difference to the other samadhis is that there is no return from this samadhi into lower states of consciousness. Therefore this is the only true final Enlightenment.”