THE DARK POOL #poetrymonth #napomo #napowrimo #mythopo

Carvaggio's "Narcissus" 

THE MOMENT ONE SEES THE DARK POOL 
There is another story about Narcissus, less popular indeed than the other, but not without some support. It is said that Narcissus had a twin sister... ~Paus. 9.31-8

What is it like, that likeness in the like of which it imitates in you? ~stephanie pope, Like A Woman Falling, p.46

Let nothing
represence ‘we’
understanding even

the oddness of “it” is
how super egoic things
operate in the spirit of times;

always shape an eye
for an “I” to embody
one’s own sensual soul’s

senses of being
in nonbeing
a soul-making

©2016 The WaterMaiden stephaniepope mythopoetry.com

notes

For The archetypal image of the watermaiden in Greek myth. See Perseus, Tufts: Paus. 9.31 7-9

[7] On the summit of Helicon is a small river called the Lamus.2 In the territory of the Thespians is a place called Donacon （Reed-bed）. Here is the spring of Narcissus. They say that Narcissus looked into this water, and not understanding that he saw his own reflection, unconsciously fell in love with himself, and died of love at the spring. But it is utter stupidity to imagine that a man old enough to fall in love was incapable of distinguishing a man from a man's reflection.

[8] There is another story about Narcissus, less popular indeed than the other, but not without some support. It is said that Narcissus had a twin sister; they were exactly alike in appearance, their hair was the same, they wore similar clothes, and went hunting together. The story goes on that Narcissus fell in love with his sister, and when the girl died, would go to the spring, knowing that it was his reflection that he saw, but in spite of this knowledge finding some relief for his love in imagining that he saw, not his own reflection, but the likeness of his sister.

[9] The flower narcissus grew, in my opinion, before this, if we are to judge by the verses of Pamphos. This poet was born many years before Narcissus the Thespian, and he says that the Maid, the daughter of Demeter, was carried off when she was playing and gathering flowers, and that the flowers by which she was deceived into being carried off were not violets, but the narcissus.

BACK TO BLACK #poetrymonth #napomo #napowrimo #mythopo

Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, The Souls of Acheron (1898)

TO BE OF USE (Ignorance Is Real)

Can you make no use of nothing, nuncle? 
~Shakespeare, King Lear, Act 1 Scene 4

I tell you
find your way to black
and you have found your way

between.
Languages of the real
uphold the painful

difference.
This no longer a term
distinct relaying

relation.
Black holds apart
the middle in

and through.
Disappearing into
the design de

sign.
Go with it
a sense of being

no thing.


©2016 What Kastalia Saw (the divine spring)
stephaniepope mythopoetry.com

GIFT LOVE

image in public domain

THE PRACTICE

call this vis

the moon's

shadow path

follow it

back to

black, black the path

to reclaiming soul―itself
an image of psyche, is
"of psyche"

psyche, being no thing, means
being of psyche has no posit
or negation to it, no negativity

psychic being―
being metaphoric―

being, a reference to itself

the way the via
is the vis, the seeing
like the moon sees

through something
earthy that is
not earthly

seeing between
lunar &

solar

a
fiat
lux

call this vis
the moon's

shadow path

follow it
back to
black

©2016 Black Star stephaniepope mythopoetry.com

WHERE A CAMERA FAILS #poetrymonth

Image and text created by Maxwell Purrington and published to the
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog 2-23-15

WHERE SOUL-MAKING GOES UNSEEN

Beauty draws the eye,
beauty itself
going unseen beautifully;

this being
how divine nature
hides out in the open.

©2016 Deus Absconditus stephaniepope mythopoetry.com

WRITING ONE'S PERSONAL MYTH #events #Wichita #writechat

A WRITER'S RETREAT
WITH DENNIS PATRICK SLATTERY
Writing has the capacity to mend some tear in the fabric of our fiction, the storied self that is always plotting its course both within and without.  By exposing to the open air of prose what affects, wounds, emblazons the scar tissue of resentments, hurts, slights, wrongs, wrong paths chosen, one has the opportunity to close the gap or the gape in the soul-holes of one's being. –Dennis Patrick Slattery, Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story

Friday, May 13, 2016

7:00 – 9:00 PM

Saturday, May 14, 2016

9:30 – 4:30 PM

$125    Includes a copy of Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story by  Dennis Patrick Slattery & Saturday lunch catered by The Old Mill Tasty Shop.      

We begin on Friday evening to explore what asks to be expressed and what direction your writing will take you. We may be called to a work that focuses on personal and/or professional growth. We might ask: What is the genesis of this call? What are its terms? Is being called a mythic instance in our life that may re-direct our trajectory? What are the consequences of its refusal? “Not now; call me back.” What parts are we still to live out? 

On Saturday, through writing prose and poetry, we’ll engage several active imagination meditations taken from Dr. Slattery’s book, Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story, as well as additional meditations created since the book’s publication, to invite the voice and energy of our personal myth through several conduits of expression. We will write cursively, so leave all laptops at home. Bring with you a journal, a favorite writing utensil and an open heart in order to enjoy this interlude from your daily routines to reflect and write in a welcoming setting and to share, if you wish, some of your own insights and remembrances with others. All participants will be given a copy of Riting Myth, Mythic Writing: Plotting Your Personal Story by Dennis Patrick Slattery.

REGISTRATION

Register Early! Class size limited! To register,  print and fill in the form below then email the form to pbjork2910@aol.com or fill in and print the form then mail to: Pam Bjork, 240 S. Pershing St, Wichita, KS 67218

A $50.00 deposit is required with your registration by personal check or Credit Card (Visa or MC). Balance due May 1, 2016. An email confirmation letter will be sent within 5 days of receiving your registration. (So be sure to include one when you send the form!)

CANCELLATION

To obtain a refund on your registration fee, email a written cancellation request no later than April 22, 2016 to pbjork2910@aol.com. Tuition less a $25 processing fee will be refunded. No refunds on your registration fee will be made after that time. 

MEALS

Saturday lunch is provided to encourage ongoing dialogue and community exchange. Catered by The Old Mill Tasty Shop

LOCATION

The Garvey House, 8427 East Douglas, Wichita

(Immediately EAST of The Independent School)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

First Name ____________________             Last Name _______________________

Street _____________________ City _________________ State ____ ZIP ________

Email ___________________________              Phone ________________________

Name on Credit Card _____________________________________

Visa or MasterCard

Credit card # ___________________________ Exp ______________ CVC _______

Check (made payable to Pam Bjork) _______________________________________

Mail check to:

Pam Bjork

240 S. Pershing St.

Wichita, KS 67218

A wonderful opportunity to dive deep into one’s story!

MAN THE POET #poetrymonth #mythopo

Yago De Quay  in Ad Mortuos, a Brainwave Performance April 26, 2015; 
Ad Mortuos is a collaborative work based on a poem by Stephanie Pope

WHENCE SOUL’S PROFOUND REALITY

“We have to conclude, therefore,  that civilization is, in its earliest phases, played. It does not come from play like a baby detaching itself from the womb: it arises in and as play, and never leaves it.”  -Johan Huizinga, Dutch Historian

Homo Ludens, man the player, state of grace
(smoke/pain) . (thunder/them) . (milk/shine) . (undone/forever) repeat forever/remembers[1]

round is the divine play, the ludus amoris, the milky shine/reflection in a state of struggle smoky pain/( his) version of them thundering through his consciousness―a reflection


hippo athanatoi
(struggle/onset )
(absence/repeating)

repeating repeatedly
what seems forever
yet in cessation, an achievement

entropy
a measure
of the number

of specific realizations
(alternating between) or
mythopoesis


©2016 Played Not Playing stephaniepope mythopoetry.com



notes

1. `J. HUIZINGA, Homo Ludens, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1955, p. 173
2. Yago De Quay

---

[1] The line is a subject heading from an email exchange between poets, Richard Lance Scow Williams, David Jewell and myself.

POETRY MONTH #poetrymonth #ohj #mpy

MARCHING PAPERS

Eros harrows my heart: wild gales sweeping …    ~Sappho, Fragment 42, Michael Burch, trans.

April’s cruelty snatched from me
lines of poetry

no subterfuge, windblown homophone;
no empty wrappers journey alone


©2016 April Is The Cruelest Month stephaniepope mythopoetry.com
#poetrymonth #ohj #mpy

“THE FALL” & “THE MARGINALIZED” : “THE LIMBO OF PATRIARCHS” (or) REVISITING THE UNDERWORLD OF THE TA KATÔTATA #poetrymonth

LIVE LIKE A WOMAN FALLING BUT…

“The ultimate state of love is freedom, absolute freedom, and any relationship that destroys freedom is not worthwhile. Love is a sacred art. To be in love is to be in a holy relationship.”  ~osho  
  

when falling, let fall at least twice
letting things fall apart and then
fall between their interstice;

in descensus
harrow the realm of the dead
not the damned and thus

shall you go
raising the bar
ever low

©2016 Undoing Limbo stephaniepope mythopoetry.com

#poetrymonth #amwriting #vss

notes

limbo
lim·bo [ lim-boh]
NOUN [PLURAL LIM·BOS.]

HISTORY
Limbo came into usuage between 1300-50 a.d.; Middle English, from Medieval Latin phrase in limbō on hell's border ( Latin: on the edge), equivalent to in on + limbō, ablative
of limbus edge, border (L), place bordering on hell (ML)

1.

(often initial capital letter) Roman Catholic Theology. a region on the border of hell or heaven, serving as the abode after death of unbaptized infants (limbo of infants) and of the righteous who died before the coming of Christ (limbo of the fathers or limbo of the patriarchs)

2.

a place or state of oblivion to which persons or things are regarded as being relegated when cast aside, forgotten, past, or out of date: My youthful hopes are in the limbo of lost dreams.

3.

an intermediate, transitional, or midway state or place.

4.

a place or state of imprisonment or confinement.  http://www.dictionary.com/browse/limbo

MYTHOLOGY
            For the Christian descensus ad inferos, myth of limbo see “the harrowing of hell”.


DANCE

            “The limbo is a dance in which participants have to cross under a stick by bending backward at the waist. The stick is lowered a notch each time every one passes under it, and those who touch the stick are eliminated from the dance. … The version of the limbo performed in nineteenth century Trinidad was meant to symbolize slaves entering the galleys of a slave ship, or a spirit crossing over into the afterworld, or “limbo.” See West Indian Julia Edwards

“Traditionally, the limbo dance began at the lowest possible bar height and the bar was gradually raised, signifying an emergence from death into life.”  WIKI

                                                                  ***********


1. The Ta Katôtata, the lowest (spirits of the dead) marginalized or cast aside but who nonetheless bring their liveliness to our mythic imagination. The Ta Katôtata are located along a threshold (to the underworld) in an imaginal space designated limbo. Limbo might simply reference a “yod” or “three way crossing.”

SÉSAME OUVRE-TOI #PoetryMonth

THE MAGICALLY SUSPENDED
TIMELESS MOMENT OF THE SENSUOUS SOUL

or when a stone opens
where god is dead—abra
(cadaver missing) —liminal zone
as if laughter (and then light)

in time’s omniscient sense
holds all & in suspense supposes
all that is in this and those
waits still in baited breath

primed for miracles.  In caves
external eternal things search
the root of no known speech
whose reach in breach and turn

fulfills a mythic dialect—God’s shadow
& god strung up and stung—you &I
too, being not only good & young
await the great invisible horse & dawn

who pronounce the abracadabra of time
reviving energies of an all eternal
minute serpent in oval stone
whose light in eons

and in years
holds emptiness
in words and worlds and ones
together.


©2016 DayBreak stephanie pope mythopoetry.com


notes

1. Abraxas alchemy woodcut on line courtesy of http://dashinvaine.deviantart.com/art/Alchemy-woodcut-Abraxas-366995037

2. Abraxas, in Greek mythology, is one of the horses of the sun. For a listing of hippo anthanatoi, Abraxas and other immortal horses of the gods, see http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Hippoi.html