Playing with poetry...

I love the way that a poem can succinctly capture and express a moment.  Here's one of mine...

Touch
Flesh
Warm, smooth
Soft and firm
Your muscles move beneath my fingers
As you lean into my hands
You feel like like poetry.

"Hell hath no fury..." - the archetypal Woman scorned

"It is here," whispered the snake. She pointed to the fruit with her tongue. And, because the sun's rays danced over the snake's glossy black scales and made rainbows of them, and because Eve was hungry, she shook a pomegranate from the tree, and ate it.

And so began the fall of man - but what of the fall of woman? Well that began much earlier. Like any good epic, the story of the fall of man has a lesser known, and far more interesting prequel...

On the sixth day of creation God created a man and a woman. The first man was Adam. And the first woman? Well, she was not the curvaceous and charming Eve, but a rather more formidable, but no less beautiful creature named Lilith. Like Adam, she was made from the dust of the earth and brought to life by her Creator's breath.

But, unfortunately for us all, Lilith was soon to become the founding member of the "First Wives' Club".

Adam and Lilith's marital troubles began on their wedding night. When Adam insisted on "The Missionary Position" Lilith was annoyed.

"The ground is hard and I can barely move at all!" she protested.

"I am the man in this house, so I decide how things are done!" retorted Adam.

"Oho! So that's how it is, is it?" thought Lilith to herself. "Well, we were created equals, and I'm not having any of it!" and so, infuriated by Adam's arrogance, she stormed out of the Garden of Eden.

Adam applied to God for help with his "difficult" wife. And so, concerned about the troubles in Paradise, God sent one of his angels to try persuade Lilith to return to Adam. Since there was no apology forthcoming from Adam, Lilith was in no mood to "play nice", and sent the angel packing. So God created Eve.

When Lilith found out that she had been "traded in for a new model", her anger knew no bounds. Firmly on the rebound, Lilith dived headlong into a relationship with a "bad boy" type called Sammael - a.k.a. The Angel of Death. And while Adam and Eve sampled the pleasures of married life in Eden, Lilith and Sammael sired all the Demons of Hell.

And, although Adam may have put his failed first marriage behind him, Lilith was still stewing. She watched and she waited, and eventually found her revenge in Eve's curiosity. Eden's serpent was not the Devil, it was Adam's scorned ex-wife.

Now, with her pain and anger avenged, Lilith faced the wrath of God. As punishment for causing the downfall of man, God cursed a hundred of Lilith's offspring to die every day. The fate of her children set, Lilith was consumed by jealousy of human mothers, and was transformed into a demon herself.

And it is said that every child born belongs to Lilith until it's tenth day, and every woman in labour is at her mercy. And whenever a birthing mother or her baby dies, or if a child dies before its mother, it is the curse of Lilith. And whenever Lillith has cursed a woman, that woman, in turn, curses men.

Sky in the Pie!

I am searching for some inspiration! Please help me breathe some energy into my dormant creative life - it seems to have been swallowed up by the minutiae of work, parenthood and life in general. If you have any ideas, please post your comments.

In the meantime, since 2009 seems to have been a challenging year for everyone , I thought this poem by Roger McGough might resonate with some of the souls out there...

Sky in the Pie!

Waiter, there’s a sky in my pie
Remove it at once if you please
You can keep your incredible sunsets
I ordered mincemeat and cheese

I can’t stand nightingales singing
Or clouds all burnished with gold
The whispering breeze is disturbing the peas
And making my chips of all cold

I don’t care if the chef is an artist
Whose canvases hang in the Tate
I want two veg. and puff pastry
Not the Universe heaped on my plate

OK I’ll try just a spoonful
I suppose I’ve got nothing to lose
Mm...the colours quite tickle palette
With a blend of delicate hues

The sun has a custardy flavour
An the clouds are as light as air
And the wind a chewier texture
(With an hint of cinnamon there?)

The sky is simply delicious
Why haven’t I tried it before?
I can chew my way through Eternity
And still have room left for more

Having acquired a taste of the Cosmos
I’ll polish the sunset off soon
I can’t wait to tuck into the night sky
Waiter! Please bring me the Moon!