THE SCRYER OF DAEMONIA

Canto Three

♥ ♥ ♥

Crow obsidian crystal

Found on the ground

I polished and sanded

Until it was round

Dr. J. Dee taught us how to scry

And there’s the pajama party game:

Say Bloody Mary 3 times

And you may die

Yet, if Queen Mary likes you

Your future husband you’ll see

True love or will he make you cry?

Reading, computing, straining eyes all day

There’s something restful staring at

A black-backed mirror to hide away

But oh those scenes to see

Different than a bright crystal ball

Where the mind invents shapes

By sun or candlelight

Obsidian, though,

Works its protective glow

And we just know

Continue to you, waiting

At the edge of the world

Because

This vision is exhilarating…

♥ ♥ ♥

© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Obsidian Mirror purified in Earth

SPRING EQUINOX 2023 HEPTAMETER*

Mother Nature stomped and clomped

Through my backyard containers

A colorful equinox

Bestowed by master painters

✿  ✿   ✿  

*7-Meter (syllables) poem

© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: My container garden (long view)

♥ ♥ ♥

Happy Autumn Equinox to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere ♥

FEVERISH SPRING

Feverish spring

Planting, planting

Powerful Aries sun

Love and hope in the air

Elvis sings on YouTube

Oooo Oooo Oooo

I feel my temperature rising

And I do

Pressing into the rich

Homemade soil

Jerusalem Artichokes

Onions and Garlic

Green and Yellow Peppers

And best of all

Ginger

Burning Love…

♥ ♥ ♥

© 2023 Clarissa Simmens  (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Feverish Spring with Baritone Ukulele

https://youtu.be/EaRYfZrm2HQ   ELVIS, BURNING LOVE

JUST A BLUES SONG IN PROGRESS

(Scroll down for a YouTube video)

♥ ♥ ♥

I been moving on

Getting no where

But nothing changes

I been moving on

Searching under

The moon’s strange,

Strange glow

Since you left me babe

I feel bereft

And so alone

Since you left me babe

Others said

It’s best you’ve flown

Everyday

Appears a bird of prey

Have you a message for me?

Everyday

You’ve appeared from where?

Must I beware?

Your eyes draw mine magnetically 

You once said I’ve a youthful soul

My laughter made you feel whole

But how long did that last?

You once said we’d never part

We’d be together forever

You said, I said

But that was the dead hand of the past

It’s over, I know

So I’m moving on

Getting no where

Why is it, in my life

Nothing changes…?

♥ ♥ ♥

© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Jennifer Connelly as Blues singer in Dark City

YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/zdBGqWnpDRk

(Always wanted to be one of those gorgeous, tall, thin, deep-voiced blues singers from the 1930’s wearing a long sparkly dress.  Instead, I had a high soprano (that I’ve lost with age) and I am barely 5 feet tall.  LOL! This is just a song-in-progress that would go nicely, at least for me and my dreams, with the blues instrumental…)

SEARCHING

Buying and creating

Playing cards, tarot and oracles

Amulets, coins and

Northumbrian runes

But nothing satisfies

What do I want?

Magic

But what?

Perhaps it is

Something contained

In a large box

A portal to space

Or a mystical place

Enter the Bathhouse

At Midnight

To cross the dimensional veil

Enter the backyard observatory

To touch heaven’s silence

But do not inhale

Maybe Dr. Who’s

Police Box

Swirling through Time’s

Maddening clocks

Enter the ocean

Swim to the bottom

Take a trip inside

A sperm whale

Or

Perhaps it is

Something restrained

In a small box

Something encapsulating 

Herbs and precious spices

Metals and crystals

Words and music

A box of 

Earth

Water

Air

Fire

A box

Yes

And I do possess  

This type of magic box

I only need pay tribute

For a mere $40 a month

To the Mobile Ogre

But what of my tactile needs?

I’ll be unable to feel

Fibers and seeds

Melting chocolate and

Carved beads

As my fingers slip across

The brightly-lit plastic screen

But anyway, the magic is finite

If the elements conspire

To lightning strike the tower

Disallowing me to wield my magic world

What would I do?

Where is the magic?

Yes, I hear

The magic is you

The magic is me

The magic is life

Yet…

©2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGES: large Slavic bathhouse box, adobe /magical boxes

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY 3-8-23

I KNOW HER

She’s you
Beauty
Surrounded by the Beast
All the essential aids
To get you through the day
Cigarettes, gum
Power drinks
And scratch-off cards
Ticket to freedom
Through a
Dreams-come-true
Entryway
If only
The right numbers
Appear

♥   ♥   ♥  

I know her
She’s me
Boredom even when busy
Earning those dollars
For clothes and cars
For internet portals
To other worlds
Where everyone is Cinderella
At the ball
With a prince
Willing to ply me with money
To buy the unnecessary
At the mall

♥   ♥   ♥  

I know her
She’s us
Working with a minimum of fuss
Maybe kids at home
Raised by Gran
Or overworked strangers
In crowded day care
And we sip alcohol
Or over-consume chocolate
Puffing on nicotine
To end the pain

♥ ♥ ♥

But work or not
We must find the passion
Become like the star-sun
Spreading our light
In waves of warmth
Because this is life
And we sometimes wonder
If the struggle
Is worth the distress
The repetitious anguish
But I know you, me, us
And I say
Yes…

♥   ♥   ♥   

(c) 2020 Clarissa Simmens
IMAGE: Prompt Photo Courtesy of HerStry (Babes Who Write)

HOSTILE PLANET

(On listening to The Blue Danube Waltz)

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Strauss’ waltz

Backdrop of Kubrick’s

Depiction of the

Grandeur of space

Zero in on the blue and green

Planet and see

Weather phenomena

Of earthquakes, hurricanes

Just part of the ambience

But what’s this?

Warped and wefted

Woven with violence

Of Earth’s inhabitants

Peaceful planet?

No

Best to go,

Aliens may think,

Because the

Underlying stateliness of

2001 A Space Odyssey

Is poisoned with signs

Computer HAL not very

Evolutionarily far from

Prehistoric apes

Bashing skulls

Blame it on the monolith

Blame it on the drinking water

Majesty married to murder…

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© 2023 Clarisa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: 2001 A Space Odyssey ape (no attribution)

THE BRAID (FOR MY GREAT-GRAN)

The braid the braid

Tangled in my hair

Made me so afraid

Gray like yours and

Seeming like a knot

Tying us down

Almost a burden

A Web of Wyrd

Reminding us of the

Norns of Norse Mythology

Urdr, Verdonde and Skuld

The Three Fates

Determining our destinies  

Especially its span

And now one morning

Prior to my diamond jubilee

I awake with what we now call dreadlocks

A braid a braid

A knot

And I am afraid because,

Because despite brushing and showering daily

How would my hair tangle like that

Sure, apply physics

Restlessly asleep

Tangling on the pillow

But perhaps that braid was made

By you who’s been gone for decades

And now and now

How can I not feel

It was you visiting

One Dark of the Moon

Does it mean that we may meet

Very soon…?

© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Web of Wyrd 2

DAEMONIA 2

CANTO TWO

You see me, used,

As a Muse

But where is my visual

Of you?

There you are

Somewhere

Hiding behind the clouds

Like a god

Manipulating life

Perhaps behind a tatty curtain

Like the Ozian Wizard

Or visiting a poor Muse

Like Zeus

As a shower of gold

Can’t see you

Don’t want the Invisible Man

But I do see your scented trail

Sinuously winding about me

A magical fog

Of moonshine and

Sparkling, distant suns

And an aroma of baking berry pie

From oven to sky

Your vague outline appears

In the distance

Snuffling the air

Like a black and tan Coon Hound

Looking to tree its

First prey of the day

This time, though

I fight back

Scenting with

Aromatic herbs, spices, and

My favorite, split pea

Rising out of a bubbling cauldron

With eye of newt

And personal pheromones

Deliberately spun

To stun

You…

© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Daemonia Canto 2

Read Canto One here:  DAEMONIA | poeturja (wordpress.com)

75 DIAMONDS

(Square Root of 5625)

*scroll down for a YouTube video

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75 Diamonds

Just a couple of months up the road

And I think of

Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car”

Today I’m one Social Security check away

From homelessness

But been lucky to find

(To paraphrase Tracy)

Roomie with a free house and

Me with a job to buy us modern comforts

Visitors can’t visit my shelter, though

It’s the open door-open floor plan

Once had a coral snake

Wrapped around my espresso maker

Screamed like a girly-girl until Roomie

Got a broom and threw it out the door

Also tossed the coffee maker with it but

I managed to hang on, homeless but free

Another dull diamond year for me

But back to Tracy Chapman

Who still has the power to make me teary

When I hear her sing

“I, I had a feeling I could

Be someone

Be someone

Be someone”

I think:

Even though the diamonds no longer glitter

Through the Earth’s crust

And in my life

No man felt I was worth a diamond on my finger

I’m grateful that wisdom comes at jubilee time

And I see

The diamonds are really the years

Many times no glitter

But sometimes yes

With children and grandchildren

And Roomie

Dogs and cats

Books to read and eventually write

Musical chords to strum

Pretending I’m as good as Tracy Chapman

Who did live to be someone

But in the end, we all are

A special someone

If we did not harm anyone…

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© 2023 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Diamonds (Pinterest, no attribution)

*https://youtu.be/AIOAlaACuv4

Fast Car YouTube Video