The Sacking of the Muses by Susan Hawthorne ebook (PDF)
the Muses have been sacked
their role in the pantheon
sold up for some new
real estate venture
When the Muses are sacked, what are we to do? The Muses who inspire poetry, astronomy, history and daily living bring their song and dance into present-day political struggles. These Muses are for rebellion.
Susan Hawthorne’s poems span millennia of resistance by women. The earth itself is implicated. She writes about women's bodies, how they are used, abused and celebrated in birthing, in sexual pleasure, in grief, in imagining. She draws on stories from ancient and contemporary India, from Greece and Rome, through language, storytelling and translation.
we embrace our double lives
like actors and their alter egos
some say śleṣa a is unnatural
I've heard the same said about us