Akikawa Nikki

My fingers are bound
And my mouth sewn up with string
My face wet with tears
As our country tears itself
Apart, ripping at the seams

Link: shame to face wet with tears

Time in suspension
Waiting for the next moment
Excited, afraid
Oh, my breath is stripped away
In exquisite agony

Note: Link is breath of air to breath stripped away. I wrote this while watching the last few minutes of the 2016 World Series with the Chicago Cubs versus the Cleveland Indians. The Cubs won by 1 point during an extra inning AFTER a rain delay, breaking an 108 year record of losses. I'm not a huge Cubs fan or anything, but I did live in the Chicago area for a couple of years when I was little, and have visited there often, so I'm very happy for them.

I signed up to do an outfit for a project that one of my fellow Calontiri, Cecilia, is doing: she is creating photographic portraits recreating the illuminations in Richard Tessard's version of Boccaccio's "The Lives of Famous Women". You can see the pictures on this Pinterest page. My first two choices were already taken, but I settled on the portrait of Cornificia, who was a 1st century BC Roman poet. The dress is plain compared to some of the others, so I think I can manage it, plus with that pose and the cloak, it won't matter that I'm so fat.

Boccaccio writes of her that "She was equal in glory to her brother Cornificius, who was a much renowned poet at that time. Not satisfied with excelling in such a splendid art, inspired by the sacred Muses, she rejected the distaff and turned her hands, skilled in the use of the quill, to writing Heliconian verses... With her genius and labor she rose above her sex, and with her splendid work she acquired a perpetual fame." Her work is lost, but St. Jerome mentions her in his chronicles in 4th century AD, so her work was good enough that it was being read 400 years after her death, and by St. Jerome to boot, who was not an easy man to please.

Here is the picture she will be recreating:



Although color substitutions are being allowed, I think I already have linen in both that blue and the light purple. The tight sleeves look like those of a Gothic fitted dress, but those gathers in front resemble a houppelande? But those tend to have big or hanging sleeves and women mostly wear those belted. This dress is NOT belted. It might be some kind of loose gown?

There's a similar dress on the Blessed Virgin Mary in The Calvary Triptych by Hugo van der Goes (@1468). Sleeves are a bit different, but the shape of the dress looks similar.



Here's another example by van der Goes from the Monforte alterpiece. He puts the Virgin Mary in this same style of dress consistently.



So anyway, have some research to do. I'm going to try to finish this outfit by the end of July.

Every night and all
Some cry, some pray, some seek peace
Within another's arms
Autumn's widening shadows
Each breath an eternity

Link: Okay, this one is a little obscure: The living and the dead to "every night and all", which is part of the chorus of the Lyke Wake Dirge.

My favorite version of this ancient song is rather modern, by Andrew Bird and Matt Berniger of The National:

Lonely, I wait here
Where none but God can find me
He isn't looking
Like a garage-sale puzzle
Not all the pieces are there

2nd poem

Oh, I cannot breathe
The filthy air clouding my lungs
In these godless times
A hurricane of chaos
Envelops the innocent

Link: poem 1 godless month to where none but God can find me. Poem 2 godless month to these godless times.

I will probably use the 2nd poem in the final sequence, as the 1st one is too modern in feel. But I liked it enough to post it.

Fallen tree branches
Scattered all over the lawn
Like thrown-away toys
And like a mother, sighing,
I bend down to start cleaning

Time is merciless
Adding to my sorrow and
Stealing my beauty
But my heart must persevere
For hope still walks among us

Link: Without mercy to merciless

The scent of wood-smoke
Carried on the autumn wind
And I am brought back
To those happy childhood days
My family around me

Notes: Link: From "premonition" to "I am brought back", imagined future to remembered past.

Something about the smell of wood-smoke reminds me of autumn during my childhood--never mind that I grew up in Texas! We had a fireplace and my father liked to use it just as the weather started to cool.

I look up, seeing
The slightest hint of color
Autumn's harbinger
The leaves whisper "Make ready!"
And a chill runs up my spine

Link: Sinners' upraised faces to I look up. Since the last poem was purely spiritual, I needed to bring the poems back into the seasonal theme. It's important that the poems keep their seasonal/natural world grounding, even if the theme wanders away from time to time.

Kestrel’s Lullabye

Words by Tace of Foxele/ Ki no Kotori
Music: Blessed Be That Maid Marie (tune: Staines Morris in William Ballet’s Lute Book @1590)
http://www.santasearch.com/resources/sheetmusic/blessedbemaidmarie.html

The original performed by Telynor, the song begins at the 1:40 marker.



Dedicated to Lora Ann Ros (Donna Brooks), who passed from us April 21st, 2016

Little kestrel, nestled near,
Come to rest in Calontir.
Outside dangers may abound.
We will keep you safe and sound.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

Where the wild northwinds howl
Lies the land where gryphons prowl.
Paths to our home can’t be seen
In amongst the maze of green.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

Eastward, dragons can be found
Rife with strength of great renown,
Past their lair they cannot creep,
The river runs too wide and deep.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

There are gracious, grassy dells
In the land where horses dwell,
Past those fields they rarely stray.
(There’re no bridges anyway!)

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

In the warm southeastern land
Lives the wild and wooly ram.
He may climb the mountains tall,
But you can fly above them all.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

On the bleak southwestern plain,
Lions wander, hunt and maim.
But they never venture far
From the light of the lonesome star.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

The mighty stag may often roam
From his westward forest home.
His legs are strong, but even he
Cannot swim the amber sea.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.

Little kestrel, tuck your wing
While huscarl and fyrdmen sing.
Dream sweet dreams of flying free,
And we shall watch over thee.

Little kestrel, have no fear,
Nothing ill can harm you here.


Notes:

1. I heard this tune on Telynor’s excellent Christmas Album Off the Beaten Path, which can be found here.

2. Since the song was about a kestrel, I wanted to include other animal imagery. The animals here are the heraldic mascots of the kingdoms and principalities surrounding Calontir.

Northshield = Gryphon
Middle Kingdom = Dragon
Meridies = Horse (that one was hard to find!)
Glenn Abheann = Ram
Ansteorra = Lion
Outlands = Stag

3. I tried to follow the logic of an older falcon and how they would see the land, hence the “maze of green” cornfields of Iowa and the “amber sea” wheatfields of Kansas and Nebraska. From the sky, that’s what they would look like.

4. I originally wrote this for Page the Kestrel, one of Lora Ann's birds, but changed the dedication and wrote the last line when Lora Ann died.

5. Thanks to Lora Ann for making me perform this in public when I first wrote this song. I was very scared, but she was right, I needed to sing this to an audience. :-)