The Teeming Dark
An Ekphrastic Abecedarian
Alas, the modern night seems desolate
Before reason and science wiped it clean
Crowds of curious creatures did gyrate
Darkness made every maid the shadows’ queen
Each humble peasant’s heart contained a god
Fit to sing in time with Pan’s panicked pipes
Glad girls were by spiced shadows neatly shod
Heeding night’s music, they shed standard types
Intoxicated by the teeming dark
Jubilant, they jumped and shone like bright sparks
Knowingly, to spirits, hungry ears hark
Lifted by pagan playing, ripe and stark
Moving in time, immortal rhythms mark
Night’s music melts mundane monotony
Overwhelmed by it are scolding sermons
Pan has no dogma save dark ecstasy;
Quaint as the past might seem in stories common
Raw and ribald were its whispers and songs
Since then, we have grown deaf to Pan’s playing
To him, we have forgotten, charm belongs
Undiminished by time’s petty plodding
Verily, if we heed haunted hours
We will detect delicious dithyrambs
Xylophonic are Pan’s piping powers
Yearnings they rouse, stronger than modern dams
Zest they restore to meek, civilized lambs
About the Creator
D. J. Reddall
I write because my time is limited and my imagination is not.
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2023 was an incredible year for women in film. Between Beyonce and Taylor’s concert movies, Barbie and 1 single woman getting nominated for best director at the Oscars there was a lot to celebrate. But just like with anything the universe seeks balance and in 2023 we nerds also experienced something on page and screen that we should have evolved out of decades ago. In the year of Barbie we had not 1, but 2 incidents of fridging in the comic book universe. Both came from Marvel and both are inexcusable. I would love to celebrate how far representation in this field has come, really I would. But I can not do that if we are still making the same mistakes. I am not going to celebrate that there is now less sexual assault in comics. I am not going to celebrate that fridging is less common. I am not going to celebrate that women are infantilized less often in comics. I will not celebrate less. Not in 2024 when every grown person on the planet should know better. I will not be celebrating less. I will celebrate when women are ALWAYS treated like human beings, fictional or not.
By Alexandrea Callaghan3 days ago in Geeks
Comments (4)
Another beautiful poem! I love how seamless your writing is even with tougher styles like abecedarian.
Whoaaaa, an Ekhphractic and an Abecedarian combined together! This has such a smooth flow to it and you even made it rhyme! You're phenomenal!
This was excellent. Personally, I like to dance although I prefer to do it fully clothed in my kitchen with no-one watching, rather than at the bidding of a dirty old satyr. Who needs Pan? A good beat and I'd dance for hours. But not naked by the fire.
Wow, intense!