On a Very Mixed Party at Bob and Bill\u2019s <\/em><\/p>\nAt first the dopers and the gays each thought
\nThe others were straight, then everyone decided
\nEveryone else was cool, and the party warmed up.<\/p>\n
At one point ten girls were, two by two,
\nThe only ones dancing: flamboyant Maggie,
\nMilly, Bev, the German girl who lives with Maggie,
\nThe blonde whom Rupert had been trying to pick up,
\nThe little birdlike girl who shies away
\nFrom my glance at school, the rather Spanish girl,
\nThe two who did not look feminine, and one other,
\nAll singing along to the Lovin\u2019 Spoonful:
\n\u201cYounger girl keeps runnin\u2019 cross my mind,\u201d
\n\u201cDo you believe in magic in a young girl\u2019s heart,\u201d
\n\u201cLook out, pretty Mom, Ah\u2019m on the road again,\u201d
\nAll so slim and pretty and being themselves,
\nExotic flowers whom rougher hands than mine
\nMight try to pick and so destroy.<\/p>\n
Later Maggie drew me out, saying
\nI was honored by her asking me to dance.
\nShe was rather drunk and very pleased
\nTo find I wished her well,
\nThat she could talk honestly with me and get
\nHonest answers that were not stabbed at her.
\nShe was very pretty in her boy\u2019s shirt, bright tie,
\nTight pants (the same style Rupert was wearing),
\nShort black hair. She chattered away after
\nWe\u2019d gotten past our defensiveness
\nAbout girls and social patterns and numbers.
\nHer outrageousness delighted me.
\nHow could I have disapproved of her?
\nWhen there\u2019s so much hatred in the world,
\nI have no quarrel with anyone who loves.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Destruction <\/em><\/p>\nThey tied her to the tree, and lit the fire.
\nYou taste its ashes in your mouth.
\nNo one tree escapes the forest fire.
\nAbandoned hills erode, stones topple,
\nNo one dances, and fires are not allowed.<\/p>\n
Not just the tree, not just the seed:
\nThe ground itself has been destroyed.
\nThe smoking silence pales the barren sun.<\/p>\n
Summer solstice comes and, measured, goes.
\nMidsummer brings no terror, thus, no joy.
\nIncarnate beauty is known by mind alone.
\nBeauty won\u2019t redeem the blasted ground.
\nThe wheel will not turn, nor ringstones sing fire.<\/p>\n
The lanterned madman cries, the news still comes:
\nThat rough beast must be more free
\nThan the goat, his fire more subtle than the sun!<\/p>\n
Up the airy mountain,
\nDown the rushy glen,
\nWe may as well go hunting:
\nThere are no little men.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Romans Had<\/em><\/p>\nThe Romans had a god for everyone.
\nLaverna was for thieves,
\nPickpockets, shopkeepers,
\nDealers, plagiarists,
\nImposters, and hypocrites.
\nZeus gave her to those so low
\nThey\u2019d had no goddess of their own.
\nThe other gods knew little of her;
\nShe spent her time in the slums.
\nHer temple was in a grove outside Rome
\nWhere robbers met to divvy up the loot.
\nWhen a pregnant girl, unmarried,
\nPrayed to her, the temple priestesses
\nWould deliver the child and raise it,
\nAs they had been raised, to become
\nAnother priest or priestess, but any girl
\nCould have her child back for the asking.
\nSo young women loved her, and young men.
\nSome say the image in her temple
\nWas a head without a body;
\nOthers say, a body with no head,
\nStill others, that she appeared whole
\nTo those who stole or cheated skillfully.
\nBut that Horace calls her beautiful
\nShows that she, who gave disguises
\nTo her flock, kept one for herself.
\nShe was worshipped in absolute silence,
\nAnd no one has ever heard of her.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
BTW, if you like my poems, my collected poetry, entitled Theodyssies and Paradoxologies<\/em>, is available as both a Kindle ebook and as a paperback on Amazon.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After that last series of essays, I will just lighten up a little. \u00a0 On a Very Mixed Party at Bob and Bill\u2019s At first the dopers and the gays each thought The others were straight, then everyone decided Everyone else was cool, and the party warmed up. At one point ten girls were, two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1098,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[77,78,1202,80,76,79],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gay","tag-goddesses","tag-pagan","tag-party","tag-poetry","tag-the-burning-times"],"yoast_head":"\n
Three Pagan Poems<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After that last series of essays, I will just lighten up a little. On a Very Mixed Party at Bob and Bill\u2019s At first the dopers and the gays each\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/aidankelly\/2012\/07\/three-pagan-poems\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Pagan Poems\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After that last series of essays, I will just lighten up a little. 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