In preparation for reading with Diane Wood, Beth Buchanan, Shauna Paull at the opening of Pandora's Toy Box this evening, I've been looking again at images of The Shy Goddess, all Lotus Head and Sexual Body: Her Flowering Mind...
Desdemona (Durga)
he came at me in a fierce rage
i felt a small crack open in my
forehead, Kali
burst forth and struck him
a fierce blow
and he was felled
Kali continued
moving about the scene
devouring men high and low
and then
i said, stop.
Not the shaper.
her eyes strayed toward Emilia
and again
i said, stop.
with the place now cleared
but for the four left standing
Kali returned to slip inside
my head
i went to the cupboard
for rags and salt
i opened the closet
for the mop and bucket
started running cold water
No idea what Iago or Emilia
will do with themselves, but
a woman needs to keep her
attention on what she herself
needs to do: every good bloodbath
must be followed by a scrub and rinse,
a home is not a battlefield after all
The Shy Goddess: Lotus & Mother |
Characters in the poem: Iago, Desdemona, Emilia, Kali, Durga,
The play, Othello, in full.
Organ Pipes National Park photo, & poem, by Joanne Arnott
Poem was originally published in The New Chief Tongue #8, Laurel Reed Books
Quote & related "Love Commandos" link, gift of Badruddin Gowani via Globeistan
Sarojini Sahoo, an interesting conversation, Sense & Sensuality
Shy Goddess images from the web, with resonance
For more about The Shy Goddess see Aditi, Lajja Gauri
Thanks to AHA Media for images of Diane Wood's creations & the opening last night.