Narcissus Poeticus
A proposed collection of poems. Ideally to be accompanied by various images mostly by well known artists, such as paintings and drawings by Dali, Poussin, Caravaggio, ancient Archaic Greek paintings, and others; as well as photos of various type of narcissi.
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Workpoints for the project:
- Narcissus - the boy who lost himself by finding himself?
- "Know thyself" - on the doors of the temple at Delphi.
- Narcissism - Freud's Primary ad Secondary
- Dali's Transformation of Narcissus.
- Daffodils as examples of narcissi ( and narcissism — Wordsworth?)
- Narcissi as a root (no pun intender) derivation of narcotics - it is suggested that a numbing drug was obtained from the bulb, which was/is certainly harmful to animals.
Or maybe the "numbing" was from the scent: " It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see: from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly, so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth and the sea's salt swell laughed for joy." (Homeric Hymn to Demeter.) - The plant that Persephone was picking when she was abducted by Hades.
One of my poems (to be published in Between New Year And Old) for The Narcissus Poeticus:
Why He Stares Into The Pool
Because my father was a river
there is water in my veins
Because my mother was a marsh lily
I find my love in shadow-shimmer
below green willow, below black alder
Because water is a fierce and faceless god
of that realm between the solid and the bodiless
Because I have hunted every game
in every forest, hill and field
there is no sport left but quarry of the self
and I am deaf to any other voice
and blind to any other face
Because my mother’s fingers
were playing in the riffles
Because my father was a torrent
that let nothing pass
Because my father was a river
my heart is fish-roe cold
Because my mother was a stream-blossom
my heart is a mouse
crouching beneath a fallen leaf.