Poem: "Minoan Dreams"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the April 3, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by gingicat, based on this picture by minoanmiss. It belongs to the series Glimpses of Minoa, which you can find via the Serial Poetry page.


"Minoan Dreams"


The Minoan girl
dreams of the Moon
surrounded by shining stars
and wishes she could go there.

She dreams of a boy dancing
with bolts of red and blue magic
in his hands like straight snakes.

She dreams of him among the stars,
the dust of the moon on his bare feet.

The Minoan girl draws pictures
of the stars in their places and
diagrams their influence on
the little house magics that
she knows how to cast.

They're just dreams,
as she goes about her day --

but they won't always be.

* * *

Notes:

Minoa was an ancient civilization in the Mediterranean Sea, centered in Crete.

The religion included references to the Moon and to snakes. Minoans also observed astronomy as part of their spiritual life.

Comments

[alexseanchai]

!!!

♥

[gingicat]

:D

And here is the post containing the picture that I took out of context:
https://minoanmiss.dreamwidth.org/148126.html

Yay!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you like the poem.

[siliconshaman]

There's a book, I forget the title of it but it was something dry and dusty, that I recall from long ago, that had detailed tables of astronomical observances... that went back a few thousand years!

The earlier parts of that table were Minoan, compiled and recorded in such meticulous detail that some academic in the earlier part of the 19th century was able to use them, [along with Chinese, and Egyptian and bunch of other civilisations] to build a definitive table of transits and other like occurrences.

It had a list of credits that included that Minoan astronomer, [who signed his/her work apparently.] That also got a mention as being the earliest known citation in an academic work.

[minoanmiss]

*blushes*. Thank you very much for this.

You're welcome!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm glad you liked it. Minoa is fun.

[thnidu]

I do like it. But there is no such word, culture, or place as "Minoa". Minoan cultures is named for the legendary King Minos of Crete, builder -- sponsor, really-- of the labyrinth that imprisoned "Minos' bull", the Minotaur. See https://www.ancient.eu/Minoan_Civilization/. Here's the relevant part:

Arthur Evans & Discovery

The archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans was first alerted to the possible presence of an ancient civilization on Crete by surviving carved seal stones worn as charms by native Cretans in the early 20th century CE. Excavating at Knossos from 1900 to 1905 CE, Evans discovered extensive ruins which confirmed the ancient accounts, both literary and mythological, of a sophisticated Cretan culture and possible site of the legendary labyrinth and palace of King Minos. It was Evans who coined the term Minoan in reference to this legendary Bronze Age king.

[mekare]

Oh that's a wonderful poem! It complements the art nicely.