The Voices Project
Follow us
  • POETRY LIBRARY
  • ABOUT
  • SUBMIT
  • RESOURCES

Rewriting Camille~ By Stephen Mead

1/28/2020

0 Comments

 
"To pray, Jesus knew, is to be a man carrying a man."  ~Anne Sexton

Why must my deepest feelings be rooted to tragedy: somebody dying too soon, too soon?
I have a persistent cough, a small cold & it's not a death rattle, not…

In old movies, books, the classics, heroes/heroines are often done away with.
Kaput. That sums up the plot. Juliet & Romeo. Heathcliff & Catherine.
The driven, the driven mad, killed despite the important roles
of maids, couriers, cooks.
.
Is it the same in our reality with just a change in costumes, in disease, backdrops?
If so, I'm going to re-write this. I'm going to let Camille live.
She wants to desperately. She wants to forget the baron, stay in the country with her Amore
& be reborn among sheep herds, bee passages, the reflections of ponds.
What, who could it hurt if they were to be poor, but happy?
Let them grow fat, get wrinkles, repeat stories, get in each other's hair.
Let's edit interfering society, family, all the petty talk of mores, of normal life---

Camille's real fears, her brass cynicism, her head thrown back in a laughter that looks like pain---
& her suitor's jealousy, his young pup sentiments... suddenly blending in a balance
of equal strength & stronger, for they will have weathered,
they will have won the difficulty of answered prayers.

It will be a new age: hearts, spirits making themselves:

Jewelry hocked, possessions kept simple, jeans worn, anything, even nothing, worn,
& heads not lowered if the world spits---

will the world spit, in the city, in the fields?
No. Only people &, I confess, it's not quite Camille, that queen's angel, I breathe, but you,
man carrying a man to be carried & stand --- is that too selfish--cough, cough ---
before we lie down.


Author Bio:
A resident of NY, Stephen Mead is an Outsider multi-media artist and writer. Since the 1990s he's been grateful to many editors for publishing his work in print zines and eventually online. He is also grateful to have managed to keep various day jobs for the Health Insurance. In 2014 he began a webpage to gather links of his poetry being published in such zines as Great Works, Unlikely Stories, Quill & Parchment, etc., in one place: Poetry on the Line, Stephen Mead For links to his other media (and even merchandise if you are interested) please feel free to Google Stephen Mead Art. Currently he is artist/curator for a Historical LGBTQI site in progress, The Chroma Museum, https://thestephenmeadchromamuseum.weebly.com/
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Poet Search

    by last name

    Archives

    January 2023
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    November 2012

    RSS Feed

Contact The Voices Project: editors@thevoicesproject.org