If you take on the role of Medea,
you will need a safe place for
recovery after the stress of
performance. You have read the text
of Euripides many times to prepare
yourself, and Cicero, that triumph
of a human being, who was reading
Medea when he was murdered, has already
sheltered you in his eternal integrity.
You require little more to achieve
your triumph on stage...
And in a deep recess of your psyche
there is a region with fountains
cascading over silver streams,
with flower-covered plateaus embedded
in white granite, with a unique species
of BIRD OF PARADISE who nurtures
her new-born in a floating nest, defying
gravity and making flight a leisure pastime.
Your soul will be refreshed in this region,
while you perform night after night this drama
of the mismatch of female and male energies.
And you will protected from the despair
of admitting such a character into your being
by two angels, neither female nor male, who
transcend the human dichotomy of sex, and
whose perfect rapport shall be evermore
the model for lovers and friends and siblings
of both genders of our divided nature.
I too will be researching more like Kelly about the referred story. That has been my way of learning. But the stress of playing a role and finding ways to protect oneself from it is so well expressed in the poem. We all have this inner space where we need to retire to refresh and to reenergize. This assurance is what makes this poem a marvelous soothing potion for any stress of life. Thank you for sharing such lovely write.
Sure, we have too little rapport with the hidden part of the world and its beings. the last stanza opens the window to that world. the second - gives a dream about paradise - refreshed after performing the mismatch of female and male energies. the first - describes common frastration of our sensory world. so you show the way out,
You are infinitely more cultured than I but I always research your topics after reading your poems and I learn. Thank you. Your notes are great helps as well
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
Playing a character from a classic play must be very cathartic. I referred to your notes n to google to really understand this poem. I think both watching n enacting a classic is a thoroughly enlightening experience. We all have two conflicting forces within us....reason n passion. And to let one prevail over the other can be devastating. A great write with a classic flavor.