Long ago all was darkness, and Sky Mother dreamed herself a husband and so it was, and she called him Mountain and lay on him in the way of women and men, and found herself with child. After an age, through birthpangs of thunder, she brought forth twins, a boy and a girl. The boy was Ice, cold and calm, while his sister was Fire, molten ire, raging, and the two could not share, for Fire wished to consume all, and Ice wished to cover all. Sky Mother let the two roam about the world in darkness, never seeing one another, until one day the two met, and fought until they could fight no more.
Exhausted, the twins sat together on the barren ground, and Water noted Fire's nubile form, lithe and alluring, and Fire saw Ice's powerful body, unable to be resisted, and from fighting they fell to loving, and in that way Fire melted some of Ice's chill and made the water rage, and Ice eased some of Fire's burning and made her tame. And Sky Mother looked down on her children's love and wept tears of joy, which rained down on the world and made life, and she beamed with gladness, which brought light into the world. And so it was and ever will be.
Oh Demon Lust, consume my mortal frame.
Devour me utterly in my desire.
In me you burn a harsher, driving flame
That doth consume my loins upon your pyre.
I long to break you down, to make you tame,
To ride you like a steed that does not tire,
But though I strain, my soul you always claim.
Forsake this spite, entombed in molten ire
And enter me, a soft and supple dame.
Your acts are wanton in what they require
Yet rising up like phoenix in your name
I burn and in your embers I expire.
And though strange lusts in me you may inspire
I long for you to set my heart afire.
The first one, I blame entirely on being in the middle of a book of Native American myths, of which creation myths are a part. This is not one of them, nor is it a clever retelling of one of them so I could include some twincest. It's basically a pastiche, and not a terribly good one. Ah well. I'm my own worst critic.
I decided that, given the first one, I should probably write something else. So I wrote a sonnet. Yeah, I can dash them off. It's not my best work, nor is it as smutty as sonnets I've written in the past,where I can get the whole metaphor thing going and really make hay with barely-concealed sex. This one... I don't know. Hope you like it.
There's a whole crowd over at PB's blog flashing their fiction around, and what with the new system he's got, you can join in the fun right now. Or at least head over there and read the others.
15 comments:
Two lovely and very creative takes. I especially like the first one - very nice play that's very much in the style of a Native American myth.
Happy FFF!
Papa Bear here. I'm not really qualified to comment on the Sonnet, since I'm not a fan of the form.
But I once read a great big book on Native American mythology, and your first bit reminded me of those awesome stories, and it made me smile. I thought it was very well done, and a nice tribute to the source of inspiration. =)
Mythological sex - I love it. All to often the sex is too hidden myth, it has been edited out or watered down. I like this though, some excellent twincest helping to create the world and thus explain why we poor mortals are so wracked with need and desire. How can we not want more when we can never truly burn life and satiate like these two?
My first thought on the first one is that you have created a completely new creation myth that can hold its own against any of the others I've read. Why not? Earth mothers are always making up stuff and if you come from the only mom and dad in the universe, a little family love is inevitable.
Christians, and most Western thought, recoil at the though of incest while conveniently ignoring the fact that Adam and Eve's kids were doing the nasty with brothers, sisters, cousins, and 2nd cousins for several generations.
The sonnet was fine as far as sonnets go, but I find the form limiting. It's OK for a hack like Shakespeare, but you know, he could have broken out in to rap once in a while to keep things interesting.
Okay, slapdash myth pastiche - 4: intricately constructed example of a rigorously demanding poetic form - 0 That'll teach me to try smart stuff with this crowd.
;)
@Max: It could probably just as easily be a creation myth from another culture with some tweaking, but I must give credit to my source of inspiration. Glad you enjoyed it.
@Papa Bear: Was it a book by Paul Erdoes? That's the one I'm reading. There are some really creepy monster myths in there too, like the one about the girl who develops a taste for her own blood because she sucks some out of a cut on her finger, and then she eats her entire body until there's nothing but a head which rolls back to her village and eats the village. Creepy.
@Marcus: You've just got to read the write compendiums of myths. The stuff for kids is extremely tame, but I've got some books which are much more frank. They're not usually terribly graphic or titillating, but unlike the modern day, ancient humans were okay with sexuality in many ways.
@Advizor: Incest in creation myth is almost inevitable. Why it's such a huge hangup is beyond me, really; it's scientific fact that we're attracted to people who are similar to us genetically. That's supposed to keep us from trying to have sex with monkeys, I imagine, but it works out to making us sexually attracted to relations.
And as far as Shakespeare's rap, you must never have read Hizzamlet ("To be or not, I got to know. Might kill myself before the end of the show.") or Two Homeboys of Verona. To say nothing of Othello. That brotha be trippin' yo. And really, Montagues and Capulets are just Crips and Bloods, dawg.
Yes, I am white. Very, very white. And I happen to find the limitations of the sonnet form rather like those of haiku or, for that matter, Flash Fiction Friday ;) Not that it's my favorite poetic form, but it's an exercise.
There are not enough writers in this world whose work demands that the reader remove all other distractions in order to truly absorb the ideas they are being presented. Often the work has been so hastily composed and so degraded in the process of preparing it for the masses that it can be consumed and its conclusion predicted with little more than a quick scan of the text.
It was with thoughts about government budgets, wars, work demands, project ideas and family streaming through my mind that I clicked to this post. I wasn’t two sentences in before realizing I wasn't going to be spoon-fed. Clearing my mind, I started over... relieved for an excuse to set all the rest aside (the true gift a writer gives) and further delighted by the picture your words painted. Writing about the mythical is a skill I don't have. I am glad there are people such as yourself who do!
I think the 1st is pretty great! I'm amazed at the different stories we can summon every week.
@Lady S: Wow. I don't really know what to say in response to that other than that you do too have that skill, because yours this week was plenty mythic, and I still maintain it was better than mine. But thanks for the glowing compliments :)
@France: Me too; we're a rather more diverse group than you'd expect, given our predilections to sexuality. Of course, maybe it's a sign that sex is a more fertile topic than most people think ;)
The one I have is a big compilation, with the stories selected and edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, titled 'American Indian Myths and Legends'.
Speaking of creepy mythology, have I mentioned 'The Palm-Wine Drinkard and His Dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Dead's Town', by West-African Yoruba storyteller Amos Tutuola? It's now available on Amazon in a double volume with it's companion piece, 'My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'. Fantastic stuff.
- Papa Bear
@Papa Bear: Oops, Paul Erdős was a mathematician. I knew I would fuck the name up, I just knew it. But that's the book I'm reading. Just got to the chapter about love and sex. Hachachachacha :)
Finally home and able to read everyone's stories. Love the mythic one. It is beautiful.
As for the sonnet, Not bad. My problem is that after a stanza or two, I start hearing a thunderclap, drumbeat, etc at the end of each line. (had a professor that clapped to make sure we got the beat...argh!)
Very enjoyable!
As usual, I enjoyed both takes. I love mythical stories....
@Word: That's unfortunate; iambic pentameter can be much more than just a beat. Ah well; I guess I'll just have to hop in my time machine and go back to the 1600s when talent was truly appreciated ;)
@TemptingSweets: Thanks hun :)
As always, I love your tales steeped in mythology and classical tales of origin. You must have a great library.
Thanks for playing along this week!
-- PB
@PB: I have a decent personal library (somewhat esoteric) and our local public libraries add up to a pretty good one, yes. Ah, books. So much fun.
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