Joined: 12 Dec 2004
Posts: 20
Location: Manila, Philippines
A Letter to Emily Dickinson from Sappho's Isle
Dedication: To the women of our time, who love the same.
What are We? What actions are We? What voices have We to publish Our Renown?
Curves, rose-upon-bush.
The forming of dew on petals soon licked by fiery sun,
the dew on hills or intellect wakened and suckled at a Dawn.
Voices of positions that whisper departures, goodbye's! from ports governed by laws and essences,
---then, hello's! to grey havens known only to Gomorrah, to cities burned by God.
We are Ourselves, likened to Ourselves and there, the fall and rise of loves
is autumn, fire-red and colors warm despite the cold,
cold,
cold,
of the world. So,
Hold ho! We take to you; for We loved in the way of your butterflies-through-Firmaments
and boggy Edens and Eve's in Milton's pool,
and yes, We asked for Susans, too.
Oh, We thrive in mirrors and ripples that do not mar Our likeness but
beget it more.
Love more, trust more in the taste of
Men? We must turn to the wat'ry reaches of our isle, to lakes and seas,
to graves that Us reflect
Only
We live in beauty of Our stones,
and live in beauty of Our epitaphs:
Together, and of One.
----
'...some of us insist on retaining the vision Eve had before she was forcibly led away to embrace compulsory heterosexuality, a vision full of powerful attraction, playfulness, and ease.'
- Toni A.H. McNaron
Author's Note:
If the poem’s too cryptic, which I expect it is, here’s the explanation: this is based on McNaron's paper called “Mirrors and Likeness: The Lesbian Aesthetic”, which is all I know of lesbian literary criticism for now. The paper includes a lesbian-feminist explanation/reading of Dickinson’s poetry as well as Milton’s, thus references to both authors. And it will be another task altogether to read, for those who have never laid eyes on it. Cheers. I just had to get this out of my system. Kill it if you have to.
Sun Dec 12, 2004 1:05 pm
DanceofSorrows
Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 2837
Asian,
First, welcome to the boards. This piece stirred the cobwebs in my mind, I loved it...thanks for sharing it!
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Cheers. I just had to get this out of my system. Kill it if you have to.
