57 Fragments of Sappho

kksa2018

After a late night listening to a lot of love songs (both about platonic and romantic love and loss), I wrote down a few poems/thoughts that came to my mind. I wanted to very roughly recreate the fragmentary nature of what we still have of Sappho’s work, so I burned the pages with a lighter to see what still shines through (and what is lost). In this fragmented version, I think the emotion showed through even more with the fewer words and gaps even though the storyline/content of the poems were lost, which I think is really beautiful. I am not quite sure why this is… maybe the words were not bogged down and distracted from sentences and sentences of writing? In the context of love, is there an application here? Outside distractions that draw away from emotional connection? I thought it was meaningful how we talked in class about taking the fragments of Sappho’s poems in stride and using it as a part of our reading/understanding of the poems instead of an obstacle to work around.

 

]hear

]watching

]my tears dry, your touch warm

 

if only you care

maybe. I do

 

]midnight

]open yourself to my soft

]but soon leave

 

]time

 

It echoes through and hits me

]happy

]how she knows

]make

]still

]after [ ] close

]I miss

Take flight in my stomach as she sings her song to me.

]I wish

 

I yearn for their cheeks in the candlelight

 

]I wish it

]forever

Maybe it was real in another time

 

]Maybe I am

]and nobody

]anything

 

I laugh, you brush my cheek, hands soft

]full of roses

]for you bloom, and I to you

 

Bury your warmth to my shaking legs

]fearful of you

 

There I rest, and I see you

 

]legs

]close

 

Universes away I am there, you playing in the poppies

]drive up the

]together

]my dreams

 

goldfinch, sing

Puddles of water envelope your shoes

Playfully, you stand

 

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Gender & Sexuality in Ancient Greece Copyright © by kksa2018. All Rights Reserved.

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