Stoddard & Melliar – November 2017

Athena Melliar and Christine Stoddard traded art and words. Christine shared this image, titled “Birthing an Altar,” with Athena:

In response, Athena wrote this poem:

Tripartite Psyche
An Ode to Humankind

     I. Sea
The swash of sea water and wind halters
the subtle scent of a white corona
of a sand daffodil—its bloom falters
too soon—interfused with the aroma
of pine trees, smoke swirls of camphor incense.
I bouquet my being, my persona.
My inner persona has an immense
greed to merge with all, to become one soul,
you see, sea bleeds into seas by intent.

     II. Snake
On shore my cobalt blue snake loves to roll
round my neck, opens its loud mouth to hiss
at me, shows off its harmonic control.
Its diamond teeth glisten as it pits
against me. Its eyes glint when it reminds
me what I cannot do, this, this, and this.
That the reach of my dream it pre-defines,
the serpent says, as it circles my neck.
Sex, class and heritage are feared confines.

     III. Sand Daffodil
Ashore the sea storm shoves tall swells to wreck
me as serpents do when curling around
a bloom’s stem, pelting a petal, a fleck
of pearl. I stretch my skin over a mould;
I squashed and rinsed it, I gave it a wash.
Inside moulds flowers nest that will astound
you, the outside with tides, snakes is awash.
The mould keeps things the same, but one alters,
the bloom grows strong lullabied by the swash.

* * * * *

Athena shared this poem with Christine:

Flaneuse

I
am
walking
aimlessly,
wandering the streets,
seeing, doing, feeling the world,
being respectfully quiet before its greatness.

She’s strolling through the streets of the city
in labyrinthine alleys, hidden nooks,
that lone partaker, with no self-pity,
of urban pleasures may have spawned from books.

With her discerning eyes sees the gritty
realities of the streets with their crooks,
their hurried, their teasers who make witty
remarks to strangers; at them closely looks.

Though flanerie shrouds her, gracefully walks
in city crowds; yet she’s detached, lost in
admiration of classic and street art.

As flaneuse eavesdrops on passerby’s talks,
in different forms ideas begin
their journey, spread by her, the muse in art.

In response, Christine made this image, also entitled “Flaneuse”: