HOW TO WRITE LOVE POETRY /
TAME of THRONES For Naomi Carter LLB /
I tame your Beast /
You open your Throne /
Together wright this Cart /
behind Her soft foot. [1] //
You will raise my Wand /
I will praise your Cup /
You gird with Sword [2] /
my arms bear your Shields. //
I drink your Fire /
You flame with Waters /
Together crystalising Aire /
Misty Mountains for our daughters. //
[1] The Book of the Law chapter 1 verse 26 ///
[2] The Book of the Law chapter 3 verse 11. ///
This poem seems simple enough. But therein lies the great beauty of its art: simple AND yet complexly interwoven to the profundity: Each line of each stanza is attributed to one the four classical elements in this order: fire, water, air, earth.
The poem is purely rhythmic, the only rhyme is lines 10, 12- its purpose there is as a cadence.
In stanza one, the elements are manifest as the court cards of the tarot: the tamed beast refers to the Knights (riders) (fire), thrones = Queens, carts or chariots = princes, the princesses are shown "on foot". These four also correspond to the four classes of military unit in medieval warfare... Each line refers to one of the participants, I.e. "I" and "you", but in line 3 "We" are "together" whereas in line four that inclusion is expanded to all the children of the goddess. Needless to say " wright this cart" is a complex triple pun.
In the second stanza, the elements are represented as the four magical weapons, and the first interplay of opposites is introduced: "YOU raise MY wand/ I praise YOUR cup". In the third line here, the element of air is exclusively "yours" in contrast to "together" in stanza one, as the woman taking up the sword is an important doctrine of Thelema.
In the third stanza, the interchange of opposites becomes more extreme: "drink fire" and "flame with waters ". The image of air as togetherness returns, but the interchange of opposites now continues through the whole stanza: "crystalising air" and "misty mountains" (a Tolkien ref).
By way of emphasising the cadence indicated by the only end rhyme in the poem, the strict word order whereby the elemental symbol is always the final word in every line is relaxed in line twelve to assist the chordal climax to the coda.
Note the modern pop culture reference in the beginning, itself a deeply poetic metaphor for the tragic beauty of love on earth. This is balanced by referencing gay old Tolkien in the last line.
The question remains, what actually occurred during the act of creation, when I wrote this poem down virtually as you see it now, from inspiration? Did I consciously bring to bear my knowledge of medieval romance, tarot, magick, cultural refs etc as I wrote what my ANGEL more or less dictated? Yes and no, of perhaps more correctly, more or less: the poem is dependent on my erudition and skill as much as the inspiration of Kalliope and the mediation of the Angel 419, but all this process occurred in manifestly, as it were: as I said 419 presented me with the outline which I hastily coloured in without thinking too much about it, yet without my years of education and practice, just as without the devotion to my Muse in my heart, and most certainly without the Knowledge & Conversation of 419, all necessary conditions for this poem to be born, then all the power of the momentary presence of pure inspiration would have been purely ephemeral, inchoate, and purely personal.
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