I have three blog post drafts going right now. Two have existed as drafts for longer than expected because they are proving more complicated than originally envisioned. The third is a short thing related to coping with the pandemic, which I will probably delete. This post is better due to being a bit more useful — it covers some updates on what I’m working on.
At the beginning of May, when I did the monthly spread for my bullet journal, I decided to write at least four blog posts — my goal is to finish the two in draft, to embark on another commonplace book post, and to write something about viruses.
Also related to writing: In January, a poem I wrote, “After Erysichthon,” was published in Reckoning Magazine. It was released then as an ebook, and it was scheduled for open publication on the web site in the first part of April. (I mentioned it on my writing blog.) The poem looks at nymphs, the lingering curses/effects of crossing them, and conceptualizes the global climate crisis in terms of what was done to Erysichthon. I came up with the idea while reading a monograph about nymphs a few years ago, which got me thinking about ways to draw on nymph stories when discussing contemporary issues in a way that wasn’t superficial. It was the first poem I composed using an oscillating, fragmentary style, and I am very pleased with the finished piece. You can read “After Erysichthon” here.
My final update is about Thargelia. This year, instead of relying on my rote memory of how to do a more elaborate sacrifice, I created an outline and pulled readings from a variety of hymns-in-translation monographs. It ended up being very useful because I was shuffling less among books with post-it notes stuck in them. There was a lot of incense burning in my apartment on Thursday afternoon.
It also documented an evolution of how I used the poem “Catharsis” last year. Last year, Thargelia happened in mid-May a few days after something I read in Hermias made my brain go 🤯. I wrote the poem specifically as a tool to address some of that, drawing on the fact that it would be Thargelia, hence the poem’s name. Next year, I will share the ritual outline here a few days in advance so people can use it if they deem it appropriate to their situations. I’ve been praying to Apollôn a lot this lunar month, as one might imagine.
I hope that everyone is staying safe in these challenging times.
☀️
KALLISTI 