'Bull-Dancers', a Poem

[browngirl]

ysabetwordsmith hosts these wonderful events called Poetry Fishbowls; at her most recent one, I was fortunate enough to request a poem (written in a metrical pattern with the utterly cool name of Classical Hendecasyllable), and she also kindly posted the free poem "Memories of Wind and Clay".

Just guess what my poem is about. :)



Bull-Dancers

He comes. Distantly, bellows echo. Bull. God.
We wait, trembling, awed and silent. Youths. Maids.

Bull-God, galloping ringward, rumbles. What horns!
Palms. Chalk. Sweaty still. Grab the horns and – Heave! Leap!

Land well. Scattering, dodging charges, we flee.
Safe, safe! Holiness touches dancers. We kneel.

Each year, sacrifice blesses those who dare dance.
Flesh. Grace. Touching His power briefly, we fly.

-- ysabetwordsmith

Comments

[cappyhead.livejournal.com]

Speaking of bull dancers, have you read "The King Must Die" by Mary Renault? I would be surprised if you haven't. I just finished it & thought it was quite good. I really do want to do a tour of Crete someday...

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I love that book SO much. It's the summer reading for one of the classes at the school where I work, and I'm really looking forward to discussing it with the kids.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

*twitches* Though at least that version doesn't contain any ellisions. That was also the hardest part of doing scansion on Catullus - sometimes it seemed like more than half the words had ellisions.

//This random twitch brought to you by too many hours spent marking little longs and shorts and ellision markings over lines of Latin poetry. There were times I think I'd go to sleep muttering BUM BUM BUM baba BUM ba BUM ba BUM bah. Bet you never realized that a meter could be a traumatic memory.//

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Bet you never realized that a meter could be a traumatic memory.

After I took Organic Chemistry, the scent of bananas made me twitch for a decade. Anything can be a traumatic memory.

But hey, the fact that she made you twitch so means that she got the meter right! *grin*