You know you’ve read too much Neil Gaiman when you feel the urge to write metaphorical semi-fantasy poems involving goddesses.

The Goddess of Love is a pitiful thing
With tresses of gold, on her bed
She’s lying unwanted, un-prayed-for and cold
Her beauty resembles the dead

She raises her hand with a delicate grace
Resenting her lovely visage
Her sisters arrive, young and pretty and full
So vivid – a lovely mirage

The Goddess of Longing, of Wistful Desire
Approaches the Goddess of eld
The Goddess of Love nods and bids her to stay
And begs desperately to be held

“I lie here alone, weak and pale as you see
While my sisters have power to lend
The Goddess of Love should be highest of all
But I’m weak and I cannot pretend”

The Goddess of Lust smells of perfume and sex
And smiles to her elder with glee
“Foremost of us, but discarded by Man
None offer prayers to thee

Man does not pray to the Goddess of Love
When he prays, he is full of desire
But once he has love, his is sated and full
He thinks love cannot ever expire”

I think I got the idea when I read Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors: I thought of a scene with depressing and/or depraved gods and goddesses, and especially the goddess of love. I reasoned that if people would pray for something, they would pray for something they lacked. Once love was granted, the need for it was sated – i.e., no more prayers. Lust and Longing, in comparison, only grant instant gratification, so they would constantly receive their prayers even if they are of “lesser worth” in the long run.

(Oh, and I’m not just throwing in capitalized words here and there. The concept of love isn’t capitalized, for example, but the personification is. Just noticed that it looked pretty haphazard in the paragraph above.)

At first I thought of Love’s character as arrogant and demanding - she would claim that all of mankind loves her, and that she is the highest goal. Still, she would sit alone on her gilded throne, not understanding why she waned away. It was supposed to be a short story…but eventually I felt that a poem would suit this idea better. And along with that came the change to Love’s character: she became a tragic and weak creature instead.

It wonder if this could be expanded into a decent story.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 10th, 2006 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Awesome Stuff, Literature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.