SAPPHO
A PURPLE FLOWER
So what are you like dear?
Look how you tremble look how you shake
A blossom
a tender shoot
A purple flower trampled on the ground
They say that Leda once found an egg— like
a hyacinth
Virginity
where have you gone?
HERA
Be here by me Lady Hera
I pray
And talk of kings those that sailed
to Lesbos
They gained great riches there
Exiled they called to you
And to Zeus
Followers of Dionysus be kind now
Help me
As you helped them
FRAGMENTS OF A KIND
Come now long-haired lovers
Let us talk of the future
Who will remember us?
The moon shines full the maidens stand at
the altar
He is dying
Aphrodite Adonis is dying
What should we do?
Shake your fists
Tear off your clothes
The night is long and I sleep alone
Weep for Adonis
Aphrodite
Adonis is dying
Eros throw off your cloak show me the sun
Set me on fire
The night is long and I sleep alone
The wind blows cold down off the mountain
Come now long-haired lovers
Let us talk of the future
Who will remember us?
The moon shines full the maidens stand at the altar
LOVE
When you are dead no one will remember you
For you do not love
You will wander in the shadows
You will roam lost in the house of the dead
Death is evil so the gods say
Some say an army of horsemen (some say
ships)
Are the fairest things on this black earth
But I say love is the fairest thing on this
black earth
APHRODITE
Glittering goddess weaver of spells and incantations
Pierce my heart with an invisible arrow
And leave me undone until we are one
Have pity on me come to me now hear my voice
Hear my cry hear my prayer
Flee the house of your father abandon that house of gold
And ride on your chariot with your white
horses and doves
Come to me and laugh at my lunacy
And free me of my longing and let us ride
On your chariot with your white horses and
doves
GIRLS
Girls I remember my youth
A gift of the goddess
A fragrant
blossom that lingered in the air
Like notes played on
an ancient guitar
But now time has
seized my body
Now my hair is white
My legs won’t support
me
Those same legs that
once danced
And floated on stages
and foreign shores
I grieve often for my
state
But what can I do?
I am human
Once long ago a handsome youth
Rode on ocean
waves looking for love
And only found it
when the world
Had turned dark and
his hair had turned gray
PERSEPHONE
Once decades ago in the aura of the morning
sun
I watched a girl picking flowers
And then from in the sky I saw a dark cloud
And I heard her cry aloud
Again I looked from my open door
But I could see the girl no more
The cloud had vanished taking her away
To a world beyond the aura of the morning
sun
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