Aphrodite abandoned (Monday mural abecedarius)

Adrift among albatrosses and aurorae
Bathed in birdsong and blue beauty
Cytherea of caresses and carnality lies conquered
Dream-drowned in dark despondency.

Eons ago, Epitymbydia enamoured eternals,
Feelings flew from her free as foam.
Great gods and goddesses gladly
Had hearts hexed by her hetaira harmonies.

Interested in intimate interaction, she incarnated,
Juices joyful at joint juxtaposition
Kalligloutos convulsed in kama-sutric kaleidoscope.
Learning of love, lust, longing… and loss.

Maltreated Morpho made miserable and melancholy
Naiad negated by narcissistic nagging.
Overwhelming odium occluded Ouranos’ omnipotence
Perturbed the peace of poor plundered Pandemos.

Questioning quarrels, she quested for quietude
Ruefully reflecting on relationships’ risks.
Sobbing and sighing she sought succour
Till through trials and tears and temptations
Urania understood human unhappiness. Now

Venus voices and validates valiant valentines.
Wise and womanly (yet weeping when once again
Excruciated by exasperating ex’s xenophobia).
Yearning for youth’s yesterdays, she yields to
Zeus’ zestful zephyr’s zenith.

This poem was inspired by two prompts at poefusion. Firstly the monday mural – to write a poem based on the picture above (by lxzp at Photobucket). Secondly the challenge to write an abecedarius – a poem based around the alphabet.

Like many greek gods and goddesses, Aphrodite seems to have a lot of different or additional names, and it seemed rather fun to weave in as many of these names as I could in the appropriate lines – the ones I managed to include were Cytherea, Epitymbydia, Hetaira, Kalligloutos, Morpho, Ouranos, Panemos, Urania and Venus. (Kalligloutos, by the way, means beautiful thighs.) Naiad isn’t one of her names, but didn’t seem too inappropriate for a goddess so much associated with water.

Songs to heal a broken heart – the memory of the feeling

 

“His memory will come creeping back occasionally. Only the other day I found myself weeping over a lost love, only, luckily, to wake up and remember what he was like in real life. But the pain wasn’t really anything to do with him. It was the memory of the feeling of what I imagined we had together.” Virginia Ironside

I found this quote some time ago, while still troubled by sudden pangs of grief for my old relationship. And it really put into words what I was feeling sad about – not the loss of the relationship, but the loss of the hopes.

A while back I turned this idea into a poem. And as soon as I can get to a piano I plan to turn it into another song in the set I’m calling “Songs to heal a broken heart” (see previous posts here and here). I already know what I want the refrain to sound like… I just need to find the music for the verses and the song is there.

At the moment each refrain is slightly different – I’d really welcome your thoughts on whether having different ones works, or, if I made them all the same, which one works the best?

The memory of the feeling

Sometimes my happiness falters
Tears well up with old pain.
I’m happier now it’s over –
Why do I long to see you again?

I miss the memory
Of the feeling
Of what I imagined
Our love could be

For it’s not you who I miss
Not you I’m aching to see
I simply can’t stop yearning
For the person I dreamed you to be

Just the memory
Of the feeling
Of the illusions
I dreamed of you

The man I miss never existed
Or at least, no longer exists.
I miss someone my mind created
Yet still the longing persists

For the memory
Of the feeling
Of the hopes
I cherished for us

But slowly the illusions are fading
And with them fades the pain
And the happiness my hopes created
I will someday create again

Brand new memories
Brand new feelings
Brand new hopes
Of someone new

Photo – Our memories, originally uploaded by andy-chan on flickr.