(Ooh, bad language ahead.)During Poetry Workshop today, our professor assigned our fourth and final poem. The goal was to adopt another persona and write from that point of view. For an example, she gave us the story of Medusa and Athena and instructed us to write from Medusa's point of view.
For those who don't know the story, Medusa was once one of the most beautiful women in the land and soon attracted the attentions of Poseidon, god of the seas. The two did some naughty things in Athena's temple, sending the goddess into a rage. In revenge, she turned Medusa into the monster we all know today.
Here's what I wrote:
"The Mistress of the Western Gates," they call me.
A term of appeasement used only when my eyes are open
and my hair is alive.
Asleep, I am the monster, the horror,
the hated of the Lady of Wisdom.
Athena, that gray-eyed bitch, who guards her virtue
with lance and shield, must surely have gazed in jealousy
as I was loved by the King of Tides.
The thought that she chokes down her ambrosia alone,
with only her flea-bitten owl for company,
keeps my vitals pulsing and my teeth sharp.
Hard for you to believe, I'm sure, but I was quite a dork back in the day. I used to spend quite a bit of time reading Greek myths and studying up on Greek gods. Athena, for her interesting patronage of both wisdom and war, was my absolute favorite. So when it came time to write this, I had a ton of trivia to pull out. I felt a little bad about it-- it takes a lot of studying to know that Athena was gray-eyed or one of the three goddesses who didn't procreate with freakin' everything around them.
One of those few times dumb knowledge comes in handy.
K.
PS. Happy NaBloPoMo to y'all. And happy NaNoWriMo as well!
Yeah, I was totally into that stuff as well. Still am actually. (But *shh*!!!)
ReplyDeleteWhy, that was wonderful. Happy NaBloPoMo to you, too.
ReplyDeleteIrina: It's still cool to be dorky!
ReplyDeletetherapydoc: Thank you very much. Good luck to you too!
K.
"When people find out that I am a Literature major, they invariably ask me, 'Well, what are you going to do with that?'"
ReplyDeleteStory of MY LIFE. I can imagine how much better it'll get when I go for a PhD in Renaissance Lit.
Good luck with NaBloPoMo!
Rachel: Seriously, there needs to be some sort of society. I've been getting so many comments about that.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks!
K.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOops! I deleted my comment!! sorry.
ReplyDeleteI liked the poem!! I am eventually pursuing a Masters in Creative Writing and a PhD in Early British Lit... when people ask me what am I gonna do with it... I tell them to suck it ;) but really I want to teach.
abzdragon: Thank you very much! I would love to get a Masters in some sort of writing, but I'm hoping to just graduate college first. Unfortunately, I have no compulsion to teach-- I'm afraid that I might end up hating kids and I don't want that. But I salute everyone who can teach children how to write. A very valuable skill indeed.
ReplyDeleteK.
PS. I am going to adopt the "suck it" mentality. Thanks for that!
Talk about two women I wouldn't want to piss off..
ReplyDeleteAlso, NaBloPoMo and NanoWriMo?! I'm not worthy! I'm not worthy!
gwyn: Amen! But NaBloPoMo is probably more realistic for me right now. We'll see where we end up.
ReplyDeleteK.