ManicDDaily

The Petite Mort

Some Renaissance poets called coming
“dying”; climax a seeming summing
of all life’s varied rites.
But, for women, whose plights

of troth and womb were
coupled (their harvest so unsure),
the metaphor tolled a bell–
fate’s arrival in passion’s swell.

************************************************

Agh.  The above is my offering for Kerry O’Connor’s cool challenge on With Real Toads to write an English version of a Chinese form called Jueju involving quatrains and 5 word lines.  (Kerry is very industrious with these things.)  The poem is also supposed often to be suggestive of erotic love.  I’m not sure mine qualifies, but it is certainly true that John Donne and Shakespeare (among others) used dying  as a sexual metaphor.  The French also sometimes call orgasm, “la petite mort.” 

Check out With Real Toads, and if you have a moment, my books!!!!! Poetry, GOING ON SOMEWHERE, (by Karin Gustafson, illustrated by Diana Barco). 1 Mississippi -counting book for lovers of rivers, light and pachyderms, orNose Dive. Nose Dive is available on Kindle for just 99 cents! Nose Dive really is very funny and light hearted, and 1 Mississippi is a lot of fun for little teeny kids.