08 - "I, Arthur"

lady of the lake
---------your light
---------still blinds me most days.

I shield my eyes
but your shell
bears down on me
---------your beak pries
my eyelids apart

you force me
to my knees at the gates of your temple.

Viviane
will you still
accept my humble gratitude
if I
look upon the faces of other gods
---------Western bearded men
---------whose love
---------seals my place
---------in glory?

You will forgive me
in my old age
though a woman's
forgiveness is never
guaranteed

You will plant your sword
in my breast
and restore me to
my Avalon.


(Image of the sacred turtle basking on her little island in the lake from this website. This week's poem, as previously promised, was inspired by the similarities between the Vietnamese legend of Kim Quy and the Lady of the Lake (Viviane) of Arthurian legend. I think of it as a play on Arthur's ultimate rejection of Avalon as he takes up Roman religion. I'm sure some of you can guess what my favorite interpretation of Arthurian legend is. A couple of formatting elements in the original draft won't work on Blogger for some reason; a few lines are supposed to be spaced over a bit, so I've tried to do it by placing dashes and changing their color to blend in with the background. I'm sorry if this throws anyone off.)

Updated Posting Schedule

Hi, all! It seems I've picked up some new readers.

I've just started my PhD, so I've been incredibly busy with that. However, I intend to keep a disciplined schedule here, so I'm actually going to impose an update schedule on myself. Hereafter, I'll try to post a new piece every Wednesday, which means the next poem will be up tomorrow.

In the meantime, have a couple of pictures of one of my turtles, Guildenstern, when he was a baby. (Forewarning: yes, I'm aware that there are a couple of problems on his shell which might be visible in these pics. He was adopted out of a filthy, negligent, abusive, and illegal petstore by a friend of mine, who then passed him and his companion on to me and my best friend. These pictures were taken during his "recovery." He's now a happy turtle and will be five years old this fall.)






Actual poem coming tomorrow.

07 - faith/less, or "Chelonian Mass for Hanoi"

The faithless
come at night to make
their offerings of piss,
aiming clumsily
at the emerald water

plastic bottles dot
the water’s surface
like candles
in their wake.

In the day
the sun calls the old people and tourists
who line the steep banks
they wait through the heat
they watch through the heat
they watch—

the old god surfaces
blowing green water
from her porcine nostrils

like a Marian apparition,
she parts the water
and displays her
scarred, gleaming shell

This is my body, which I have maintained for you, though the city has poisoned me
This is my blood, pooling on the green, shed for you
This is the sword and the arrow

distracted
from her servants’ reverence,
the old god opens her mouth
and begins to dine
on a dead cat.





(First image of a crowd gathered to watch the turtle from this website; the second one, depicting the turtle gnawing on some garbage that was thrown in the lake, comes from this website. The reference to the turtle eating a dead cat comes from this YouTube video (previously linked in another post). The video not only shows how polluted the lake has become, but also a few glimpses of the turtle eating the corpse of a cat that had somehow gotten into the water with it. I anticipate someone wondering why I've chosen to identify the turtle, now known to be female, as a god rather than a goddess. I'm sure most will agree that, unfortunately, the two words have different connotations in Western society, and I'd prefer to acknowledge the turtle's mythological origin as a warlike deity who defeated whole armies, which, again unfortunately, is an attribute rarely accorded to female deities.)

06 - godface

who says a god
must be beautiful
like Botticelli's Venus
or any other
long-haired Caucasian deity
who shares a name
with some aspect
of astronomy?

you,
Rafetus leloii,
are just as beautiful
as any naked
foam-riding goddess
though you remain

a grotesque thing
scarred and soft
a reminder
that the history of all,
like godhood,
can be quite
an ugly affair



(Note: As I understand it (though some people debate the topic), Rafetus leloii is the same as Rafetus swinehoei. However, I've chosen to go with the former to acknowledge the mythology behind the sacred turtle.)

(Image found here.)

05 - Kim Quy appears to Lê Lợi, or "An offer you can't refuse"

(Getting kind of a late start with this part of the project due to personal circumstances (moving formally to a different country, starting PhD, the ridiculous psychological effects the extended sunlight hours of England are having on me, a general lack of creativity), but here begins some work involving the sacred turtle of Vietnam, the object of my current fascination. Recent reports say that the turtle has not only recovered but has also been discovered to be female, so, yes, a Lady of the Lake/Arthurian legend comparison will be forthcoming.)

Introductory note: This poem concerns the origin of the sacred turtle's legend, as I wanted to begin with that as a context. According to the legend, the Golden Turtle God, Kim Quy, appeared to assist the country in times of war, providing magical arrows to An Dương Vương all the way back in the third century BCE and again to Lê Lợi in the 15th century. Kim Quy gave the future king a golden sword that imbued him with supernatural power, allowing him to defeat Chinese invaders. After Lê Lợi's victory, Kim Quy appeared again to take back his sword. The lake at Hanoi where the present day sacred turtle resides was named for this legendary event.




I will give you
the tools for surival
but you must
give them back

it's in my nature, after all,
to require
reimbursement,
being older
than the earth itself.

Your enemies will
scatter before the gifts
I bring you --

a golden sword
a scale from a fish
and an arrow.

Please excuse
the beak-marks on them all.
Old habits
die hard.




( The image, which depicts Lê Lợi with Kim Quy, was found on this website; however, when I tried to find its source at the website it lists, I found that the site is no longer working.)