Pythian Games

Valkyrie’s Prayer

Posted in A Poem a Day, KerryWordsmith by kvwordsmith on May 7th, 2008

A web of weird is cast –

Three sisters weave the wick:

Clothos, who spins the thread of human life,

Lachesis, who determines the length,

And Atropos, who cuts the thread of the quick.

Twisting raw fibers,

They form a cocoon,

Over and under, around and through:

They proclaim my fate and raise an alarm:

A mortal soul is born!

Mine is a cloth torn from the loom

As the spirits whirl and dance,

Chortling with glee.

Random misery is my lot –

I cannot escape the gods’ own curse.

I dwell in a cloud of blackness,

My innocence plucked from my youth.

Cancer of sorrow sprouts like a fungus

In the dank undergrowth of my mind.

Tangled, ensnared, choked by the ropes,

I claw at the garrote and pray,

“Great Norns, transform me!

Let me become uroboros,

Declaring, like the Scots queen,

‘In my end is my beginning.’”

 

Kerry Vincent © 1992

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4 Responses to 'Valkyrie’s Prayer'

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  1. Jill said, on May 11th, 2008 at 9:33 pm

    Wonderful words Kerry.

  2. Heather Blakey said, on May 12th, 2008 at 10:34 pm

    Now these girls keep popping up in my work too. It is always good to offer them a prayer.

  3. espirit07 said, on May 13th, 2008 at 2:41 pm

    Outstanding poem!

  4. cronelogical said, on May 14th, 2008 at 11:14 am

    Strong and direct as this type of poem should be. Fran

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