Eliogabalus, Shu, Malakbel, Shamash, Sól; under the fragments of your cone reaching the lodes of stillblood; under your numerous risings, emptier and brighter; under you and always under, as broken circles or frangible slopes, the light pools around our fingers and edulcorates the tinge. We realise, now, how nights can be synergistic. How nights can be lawful with their tiered, thick orders. Under you (and always under) our thoughts are wholly purified, as one does not live without the doubled spasm, the squeezing of a nerve and its reproduction elsewhere; a pair under the sun and by it guided, o, lordless god of coloured things, lordless god of solemn rituals that succour the putrefaction and bubbling beneath the sand and the sandstone. As I look for you along the waste and excrement, as I vessel your light in the divine misery that circumscribes you, I see now the shape of my sentiments and how, in gold or silver tones, they are alchemised and roped out of me as if I was hollow and hung by them. As a creature of sacrifice, I’ve seen the blue of your hunger and repulsion and I’ve bled for such tender illusions. I for thousands and I for millions and I in the pythian flumes carrying yet another ewe of blood to where you cannot reach it. Forever shall we pay for the draught of life with the kneeling chill of our extinction; our catacombs run as deep as you hover; o, lordless god, how we venerate you in how we abhor you.
Yu,
João-Maria.
(CALIATH) 
if your English is this good, your Portuguese must be divine.
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Annoyingly academic, Ben, which is the massive defect of studying Humanities. In many sense, I prefer my English to my Portuguese; it feels much freer, lighter, young.
But thank you for the compliment 🙂
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Beautiful lines, João….
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Frangible is a great word.
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Ain’t it? Quite a sturdy one too. Reminds me of that Local Natives song, Airplanes.
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I like Jefferson’s airplane… Oh, nevermind.
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Joao-Maria, After several readings, I attempted an interpretation of the two poems.
I interpret the first poem “Plasma” as a portrait of a heartless, blood-thirsty God. The speaker is perhaps expressing anger at the death of a loved one or his own mortality. I guess my own view is that God is an irrelevant concept, a personification of all things human beings are incapable of understanding.
The second is a reflection on the death of Aiken. However handsome, vigorous, and beloved he may have been in life, his spirit is gone and there is nothing appealing left behind in his decaying body. Perhaps the speaker is grieving and attempting to deal with the finality of Aiken’s death.
I suppose poems are open to interpretation. Am I even close to your original intent? Indulge me. 🙂
Are you in classes? Studying remotely? All the best! Cheryl
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Plasma comes from readings on Solar Deities and how they were representative of the highest hierarchies of divinity. The solar crown, as one wills, the precursor to the monarchs and pharaohs and emperors; the sun-chosen and sun-willed.
The Zoroastrian religions were deviants to this tradition of reserving the solar energies to the absolute, though mostly because they denaturalised divinity, reserving it for a transnatural realm and its own unworldly mythos.
My prose mostly accites the pythian and delphian rituals of the Ancient Mediterranean cultures, mostly hellenistic and roman or roman-arab, surrounding the sacrifice of avians and the donation of food to the solar temples so those mixtures of rotten matter and blood would dwell in the shadowy catacombs of the temples, never to be graced by the warmth of the god they venerate, for that is the ultimate sacrifice. The solar energies govern life as life is by them woven and allowed to exist, but fear is the apt adoration, that ablution of decay and darkness; the solar power of exertion, magnificence, destruction, and the hollow taste thus that we live more in covenant with our nightly, lunar purposes, which forever balance our ability to love the hateful disposition that the Sun volleys upon us.
The second poem is a simple elegy to Conrad Aiken, the American poet! I didn’t realise I removed the citation mark from his snail excerpt at the beginning of the poem. Each of the parts responds to some central theme in his poetry and they all make direct references to poems of his.
No, Cheryl! I’m currently working, as I always have been, and classes should begin around October. They are a bit late this year due to Covid, but they will be presential, which is good, since I’m such a fan of the Academic space and Academic spirit. It’s half the reason to study, truly. How are you doing over in Florida, Cheryl? I heard your state isn’t catching too many breaks as of late… I hope you’re well.
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Thank you, Joao-Maria, for the background information. I feel a little guilty about the time you spent replying I am sorry that the academic year is delayed, and I hope the virus doesn’t spread there as it is now doing in some US universities. Enjoy your studies. It is refreshing that you love learning for its own sake. Academia seems like a great niche for you! What are your future plans?
Some of our western states are suffering horrific wildfires which are being attributed to climate change. There is a lot of destruction from hurricanes, especially in Louisiana. Our current government administration is the laughingstock of the world, we are in the nastiest presidential campaign in history, and the protests and police brutality continue. As I write this, I am thinking that these things may be the reasons for my insomnia! We are a strong people, and hopefully, we can recover from all of this. Thank you for asking. ❤
All the best! Cheryl
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Joao-Maria, as a student of world religions and philosophy, and an admirer of poetry, these works really spoke to me. Was Stevens’ Sunday Morning in it, and echoes of Baudelaire? You have some gift! Once again, I clicked the like button but it didn’t say I was recorded as liking this post, which I very much did. Dave
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David! I’m always jubilant when you come by. Oh, I am not sure how I remind you of Stevens, but how incredibly glad and exulted am I to do so. It’s likely one of the authors I most highly respect. Thank you for your kind words, truly.
It did record that you liked my post! But I also get those bugs, like, for example, I just noticed that I’m not following you, which happens a lot with a ton of blogs. Uff.
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I think we think very much alike. I have a couple of poems posted if you read them, You may see what I mean
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I shall see them at the very earliest!
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