Red Moon Poem by Diana Thoresen

Red Moon



Scathing like a jeremiad
By Péladan
The red moon laughed at the sea
And the fox-ness of the fox

Blood rays remained
A vatic utterance of the jungle

Every lupercal dragonfly
Conspired with churlish

Red hibiscus flowers
On a night like this

All creation winces and endures
Before melting into a black water mirage
Of broken feverish brush strokes
And fruit bats in a mangrove swamp

Red Moon
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
Lupercal(noun) a grotto on the Palatine Hill sacred to Lupercus, the Lycean Pan. Joséphin Péladan (28 March 1858 in Lyon - 27 June 1918 in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism. The Salon de la Rose + Croix was a series of six art and music salons hosted by Joséphin Péladan in 1890s Paris. The Salon de la Rose + Croix grew out of Péladan's Mystic Order of the Rose + Croix, a cultic religious movement that he established in Paris. The avant-garde Salon artists included many of the prominent Symbolist painters, writers, and music composers of the period. The Salon de la Rose + Croix was vital in promoting works of the Symbolist movement, although many important non-Symbolist works were also presented. Among the most influential works included at the Salon were the 'Gothic fantasies' of painter Arnold Böcklin, the music of Erik Satie, painters Fernand Khnopff, Ferdinand Hodler, Jan Toorop, Gaetano Previati, Jean Delville, Carlos Schwabe, and Charles Filiger. Not all Symbolist artists were enthusiastic about Péladan's Order and his Salon. Gustave Moreau and Odilon Redon rejected Péladan's doctrines and preferred a different, progressive approach.[4] Péladan was a tireless and creative publicist for his movement and for the Salon in particular. The press and the public both flocked to the Salon's exhibitions when they were held. Péladan was as well known as his Salon, and his controversial personality may have overshadowed the Salon, leaving a more lasting impression. Although the Salon was popular with the public when it was held, the Symbolist movement failed to develop into a dominant trend in art.
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