Poem: "The Lapis Palace"
Jul. 1st, 2022 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithI wrote this for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sunshine_challenge Day 1 prompt "lapis lazuli." It also fills the "craft or make" square in my 7-1-22 card for the Body Parts Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America.
"The Lapis Palace"
[2022]
It was not the women or the men
who came to craft the Lapis Palace,
but the ones who were both or neither,
called kurgarri and galaturi of old.
They were the ones who saw a need
for listening, for sympathy, for validation.
So they made a place in the healing garden
that held a lapis fireplace and several chairs of
rich blue velvet and ceramic jars of fine wine.
It gave people a place to sit and speak
of whatever weighed down their spirits.
There was a kitchen with lapis counters
and a long table for the laying out of feasts.
People could eat and remember the dead,
or learn to listen to the needs of their own flesh.
The bathroom was done in pale gray marble
with lapis on the counters and all around
the great bathtub set up like an altar.
It was a place of cleansing and purification,
made for the the washing away of all
that could befoul the body or soul.
In the bedroom, lapis lined the walls
at the head and foot of the wide bed
bedecked with comforters and pillows
made from the finest down and silk.
Its soft embrace offered healing, whether
through loving touch or peaceful sleep.
Always the kurgarri and galaturi
were ready to cry out in sympathy
as they had with Erishkegal herself:
"Oh, oh, your liver! Oh, oh, your heart!
Oh, oh, your inside! Oh, oh, your outside!"
For no wound is so ground that it cannot
be eased, at least a little, by a beautiful place
and the comfort of another sympathetic soul.
* * *
Notes:
Erishkegal is the Sumerian goddess of the Underworld, described as a place made of clay and lapis lazuli. In "The Descent of Inanna," her misery is relieved by two created beings, the galatur and the kurgarra, who express sympathy for her suffering. They are often characterized as "two sexless beings," but with different names, some people consider one to be both masculine and feminine while the other is neither, or one a transman and the other a transwoman, and so on.
See the living room, kitchen-dining room, bathroom, and bedroom of the Lapis Palace.
sunshine_challenge Day 1 prompt "lapis lazuli." It also fills the "craft or make" square in my 7-1-22 card for the Body Parts Bingo fest. It belongs to the series Arts and Crafts America."The Lapis Palace"
[2022]
It was not the women or the men
who came to craft the Lapis Palace,
but the ones who were both or neither,
called kurgarri and galaturi of old.
They were the ones who saw a need
for listening, for sympathy, for validation.
So they made a place in the healing garden
that held a lapis fireplace and several chairs of
rich blue velvet and ceramic jars of fine wine.
It gave people a place to sit and speak
of whatever weighed down their spirits.
There was a kitchen with lapis counters
and a long table for the laying out of feasts.
People could eat and remember the dead,
or learn to listen to the needs of their own flesh.
The bathroom was done in pale gray marble
with lapis on the counters and all around
the great bathtub set up like an altar.
It was a place of cleansing and purification,
made for the the washing away of all
that could befoul the body or soul.
In the bedroom, lapis lined the walls
at the head and foot of the wide bed
bedecked with comforters and pillows
made from the finest down and silk.
Its soft embrace offered healing, whether
through loving touch or peaceful sleep.
Always the kurgarri and galaturi
were ready to cry out in sympathy
as they had with Erishkegal herself:
"Oh, oh, your liver! Oh, oh, your heart!
Oh, oh, your inside! Oh, oh, your outside!"
For no wound is so ground that it cannot
be eased, at least a little, by a beautiful place
and the comfort of another sympathetic soul.
* * *
Notes:
Erishkegal is the Sumerian goddess of the Underworld, described as a place made of clay and lapis lazuli. In "The Descent of Inanna," her misery is relieved by two created beings, the galatur and the kurgarra, who express sympathy for her suffering. They are often characterized as "two sexless beings," but with different names, some people consider one to be both masculine and feminine while the other is neither, or one a transman and the other a transwoman, and so on.
See the living room, kitchen-dining room, bathroom, and bedroom of the Lapis Palace.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 10:44 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-01 08:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 11:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 03:20 pm (UTC)(Also that bathroom? I'd definitely break my neck when done bathing, but it looks GORGEOUS, haha.)
Thoughts
Date: 2022-07-02 04:24 am (UTC)Thank you! I'm glad you liked it so much.
>> (Also that bathroom? I'd definitely break my neck when done bathing, but it looks GORGEOUS, haha.) <<
I admit that a gold-toned staircase and handrail would be an excellent addition to that altar tub. :D
More realistically, the small type of lapis tiles aren't much more expensive than other high-end tiles like dichroic glass. Using them as a mirror border or running strip in a bathtub or shower enclosure would be feasible for more folks than the large amounts shown in this temple.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 04:19 pm (UTC)Lapis is one of my favorite gemstones. I'd love a place like that.
Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-01 08:35 pm (UTC)On one of my high school trips, I think it was Mexico, I saw two enormous urns -- as tall as me -- one of lapis, and one of malachite. Very impressive.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-01 09:09 pm (UTC)Malachite and amethyst are my other favorites.
Re: Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-02 04:30 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 06:09 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-02 04:22 am (UTC)Yay! That's what I was aiming for.
>> and I loved learning more about these Sumerian deities.<<
I'm happy to hear it. I've been writing about them for many years. Gosh, the first time I heard "The Descent of Inanna" this life was in high school. We went over for an evening event with a storyteller, and it snowed, so there were only a handful of us. It was just magical. He told that story, and a Native American one about mammoths.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-01 11:31 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-02 04:38 am (UTC)It seems to be enormously popular with readers. \o/
If you want more, by all means drop by on Tuesday, July 5 and prompt for in the Poetry Fishbowl. The theme will be "Unusual Sensory Experiences" which is a good fit for this topic.
>> The images the poem conjures are so beautiful and peaceful-sounding.<<
That's what I hoped to convey. The deep blues of lapis are good for that.
(no subject)
Date: 2022-07-05 02:29 am (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-05 09:20 am (UTC)Re: Thank you!
Date: 2022-07-08 04:32 pm (UTC)