Monday, April 9, 2012

Norman Brown, "Metamorphoses II: Actaeon"

Saint Actaeon, the hermit; initiate wearing the horns of consecration; like the sorcerer in the paleolithic cave at Trois Frères, a man masked in a stag’s head. Antlers as tines, or tongues, or branched thoughts, new grown with pleasant pain; a ladder of perfection. . .

I will tell the truth, perhaps it will seem a lie: I felt myself turned from my proper shape, and I was transformed into a solitary wandering stag, running from wood to wood; and I am still fleeing from the rage of my own hounds.

1 comment:

  1. E Pound, "April, Nympharum Membra Disjecta:"

    Three spirits came to me
    And drew me apart
    To where the olive boughs
    Lay stripped upon the ground:
    Pale carnage beneath bright mist.

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