Alchemy

I.

The lowly poet
in his heavenly ascent
doth contribute to man's
opus magnum

In examining his
crown of thorns
a budding wreath of laurel
he finds

...and thereafter:

The aurum philosophicum
               or
       aurum non vulgi.

Perhaps the alchemical gold
in the stream of
forgetfullness.

(the aureum flumen?)

II.

According to the alchemists
First we must meet the chthonic dragon:
spirit of nigredo
and it is thus that we suffer

Until this dragon
is overcome, the
shadow of melancholy
enchains us.

Entombed until the
Aurora of dawn
is announced by the
Peackock's tail.

To overcome this death:
Albedo, the ghostly
Whiteness, must draw blood.
Must take the redness of life.

III.

A new brand of listlessness
befalls the lowly poet:

Caressing his chains of freedom
Link by link

enclosing himself further within
an inexpressible conundrum:

metonymic escalation of
practical obligations

In a golden stream
of possibilities

Perhaps the aureum flumen
is the very opus of forgetting itself:

why remember, when what lays ahead
is the true elixir: the elixir of transformation?

Helicon

Is it true that upon Mount Helicon
You hear the god-like Muses?

Their voices trembling like
mirrory waters

Coursing through two sacred streams
High above the loftiest clouds

The very waters, which trapped Narcissus:
forged by flying Pegasus' hoof.

There, will the poet find his
liminal revelations

Apart from reason:
Above reason?

Amidst his exquisite
abnormal, inner experiences

Poetry rises like flamed concupiscence

from the ashes of an inevitable purgatory

Flowers and Things

Tisiphone

To be cursed with a fundamental and originary confusion about the nature of love, is surely the most obvious cause of envious and possessive attitudes for those blessed souls who find themselves on the brink of annihilation at every semblance of a threat or betrayal in the throes of an intense love-relation.

Would that we were able to value and cherish the distinction between love and lust, between the care & concern that comes along with true, authentic love and the kind of flippant, mutual self-desecration that occurs between unfaithful youths, unwilling to moderate their exuberance.  Let Tisiphone's Fury mix poison and sharpen steel for them to burst their bubble and turn ecstasy to gall.  Rocks hear the charges she recites, and echo--hark!--replies "Requite!" Death to all inconstant lovers!

Or heed Plutus when he says: "Wisps of fog, rain-bearing mists, come and hover all about, hide this fiery confusion! Cloudlets, trickle, murmur, whirl, billow softly, gently dampen, fight the flames, put out all fires, and as soothing rain and moisture change the futile glow of fire into harmless summer lightening!  When demonic forces threaten, magic must come to our aid."

Greenangel

You look like a tiny Greenangel
Wrapped in your translucent sheath
Sent here to transport me
From this realm to the land where
Dreams spill like autumn petals
On a windblown October's day

As you ignite, the fire burns red
Embers, turn embers
Into smoke.
I breathe you in: my delicate
Fragile Queen.  Your power
Unravels the truth in the myths of old