Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Kerry's Wednesday Challenge ~ Gods in Nature

What has become of the old gods? 


Tumblr.com
#Titon
In his sonnet, 'The World is Too Much With Us", Wordsworth bemoans the fact that we have lost our place in the natural environment, and no longer appreciate the gods in nature.

                  Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.


River Mimram (Source)

My imagination was piqued recently when I came upon the poem, The river god, by Stevie Smith in an old anthology of poetry. Her monologue of an old forgotten Celtic god of the River Mimram set me to thinking of these pagan deities of civilization's rich mythological history. What has become of them? How do they view the modern world? Have they lost their powers now that no-one believes in them?

The river god
(of the River Mimram in Hertforshire)

I may be smelly and I may be old,
Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools,
But where my fish float by I bless their swimming
And I like the people to bathe in me, especially women.
But I can drown the fools
Who bathe too close to the weir, contrary to rules.
And they take a long time drowning
As I throw them up now and then in a spirit of clowning.
Hi yih, yippity-yap, merrily I flow,
O I may be an old foul river but I have plenty of go.
Once there was a lady who was too bold
She bathed in me by the tall black cliff where the water runs cold,
So I brought her down here
To be my beautiful dear.
Oh will she stay with me will she stay
This beautiful lady, or will she go away?

Read the complete poem HERE.

Our challenge today is to select a Celtic Deity (listed here) or you may go with the Greeks or Romans if you prefer (listed here) and write in the first person perspective of the god or goddess, but as if he (or she) were contemplating existence in the present era. Allow your imaginations to dictate what has become of the gods' personalities and relationships with humanity. Perhaps, these gods have opinions on the state of the environment or 21st Century politics. I am looking forward to the results of this prompt, so please link up below and pay a few other poets a visit while you are here.


30 comments:

Kay L. Davies said...

This is wonderful, Kerry. Thank you.
I might miss a Toad challenge or two as I'm off on a trip by myself, but I'll do my best to keep up.
K

Unknown said...

So Cool! I will have to come back to this one :)

Margaret said...

Oh. I. Live. This. On my busiest day of the week, but I am so inspired. If not here I will link up Mkbday for sure. I have some studying to do for this. (And Cable guy is coming to hopefully fix my wifi home connection! The iPhone is my soul contact with the outside world right now (my thumbs are not living it :)

Margaret said...

Ha. As you can see from all the typos.

Maude Lynn said...

Hedgewitch . . . calling Hedgewitch . . .

Ella said...

I have been to Zombie land! I will go back and see what I missed. I ended up on pain meds and have been sleep walking through life.
I love this challenge :D

Thank you Kerry!

Fireblossom said...

Oh Kerry, you just tossed this Irish girl a softball! I'm going to overcome my urge to use my old stand-by Athena, and find a good old Celtic goddess to work with. :-)

Fireblossom said...

...or maybe I'll write two!

hedgewitch said...

I am of course on board totally, Kerry. My muse has been hiding of late, but I am off in search of her.

Marian said...

ohhhh... what a great challenge, Kerry. maybe you've noticed my absence from here, there, and everywhere, but i hope to be able to participate!

Kathryn Dyche said...

Love the first two opening lines and I'm left wondering whether that lady stays or not.

hedgewitch said...

I'm up,finally!-- but may be awhile before I am around to read as the back is threatening me with a potential shut down. If I don't make it today, bear with me. I will get there.

Kerry O'Connor said...

I'm thrilled to see how many have snapped up this challenge. This is the last week of term before Spring break and it's my daughter's matric farewell ball on Friday... I'm toooo busy to write anything myself, but an idea is brewing and I hope to get something down this weekend.

Hannah said...

Thank you, Kerry!! :)

Marian said...

i know, i know, Daphne was a nymph. but she was immortal!

Anonymous said...

Marian, have you disabled commenting or am I just a dope? (The latter is very likely.) I can't figure out how to leave you comments.

Fireblossom said...

Cham Sea--Marian ditched comments a while back.

L. Edgar Otto said...

Looking for Neptune's photo I came across this poem of last year in my myths of Olney (street where I was born in Norfolk, Va. so first person once removed.) For this century we see the twilight of the gods of cosmology yet the ongoing struggle between love denied and love desired. The old gods live in our memories back then the shell of their images and idols were alive.

Anonymous said...

mine's up and, well, 'running' may be a stretch, but up, and off to read. lots of fodder here.

Grace said...

Kerry, an interesting prompt ~ I will try my best to cook up something ~

Happy day to all ~

Kerry O'Connor said...

Marian, I loved your take on Daphne! Not much one can do to avoid the foibles of man when rooted to the spot.

Marian said...

haha! so we have to try to have a laugh. xoxo

Susan said...

Hi Kerry! What is a Matric Farewell Ball? I'm off to visit nature and gods with the toads in the garden.

Kerry O'Connor said...

It is our equivalent of a senior prom - a formal dinner & dance to say farewell to our graduating class of the current year.

Debi Swim said...

A little late.... but catching up with reading the others NOW.

Margaret said...

I think my computer is fixed and BACK for good. I will be around catching up! This was a hard one for me to write, but I loved researching it. Thanks, Kerry.

Ella said...

Zombie be gone! I feel better and am looking forward to visit all the gods and goddesses! What a fun challenge! Thank you Kerry :D

Lolamouse said...

Great challenge, Kerry! I'll be back to read more. I just got a new job and have lost many of my poetry reading and writing hours!

Margaret said...

I've been sick the past few days AND my computer is giving me trouble. I deleted an earlier link and have reposted.

Hannah - I actually rewrote the entire poem (you commented on the original) while my computer was acting up... Hope my computer is fixed... we will see.

I will be back Friday evening to comment! Can't wait to see what everyone has written.

Susie Clevenger said...

What a wonderful challenge Kerry. Can't wait to read what everyone has written!!