The Rites of Womanhood

[Dark Muse]

The Rites of Womanhood

I fall into my depths,
descending within
cavernous darkness,
embraced womb-like
within these earthen places
which hide from the world.

Falling in perpetual
downward motion
within myself,
where I may vanish
into the comfort
of pneumatic ecstasy.

Those soft forbidden
folds which close around
self-inflicted doubts to offer
whispers of all encompassing
tranquility.

Yet this gift it seems
must always be turned
outward, stolen by
hard-edged masculinity
plowing through the fields,
stealing pieces of the soul.

If I could be devoured
by the soft beauty
of my eternal warmth
and disappear within
primitive darkness.

[PrinceMyshkin]

As Bar did in one of her "Snatches," where I did not immediately understand the value of it, you have presented your final stanza as an incomplete thought and - perhaps schooled by one or more of the comments on Bar's poem - I appreciate the tentativeness of it, as I do all the preceding verse.

[MorpheusSandman]

This has the same sexy, sensuousness of your last poem. Maybe I'm way off but is this about (at least, partly) masturbation? It's suggestive and lovely either way.

[Dark Muse]

You are not too far off, yes the poem does very much allude to that, though it is not strictly about just the physical act.

[blank|verse]

Maybe I'm way off but is this about (at least, partly) masturbation?

Well, I'm not the only one then. It's hard not to read the phrase


pneumatic ecstasy

in any other way. Particularly when she next talks of


Those soft forbidden
folds

which is strongly suggestive of the vulva. Which also loads the lines


hard-edged masculinity
plowing through the fields,

with sexual connotations.

The last stanza is interesting syntactically, as it begins with 'if'... which suggests 'then' will appear to complete the sentence. It doesn't, leaving the reader hanging in a state of irresolution. Therefore (casuistry warning!) it could be argued the poem doesn't achieve literary orgasm - something connected more with female writers than males.

[MorpheusSandman]

Thanks for the confirmation DM and, as usual, excellent analysis blnk vrz. Yes, I definitely get the poem is about much more than that. If anything that aspect seems to exist more metaphorically. As I read it again I must say this is one of my favorites from you DM. Erotic existentialism, maybe? It's very, very interesting.

[Dark Muse]

The last stanza is interesting syntactically, as it begins with 'if'... which suggests 'then' will appear to complete the sentence. It doesn't, leaving the reader hanging in a state of irresolution. Therefore (casuistry warning!) it could be argued the poem doesn't achieve literary orgasm - something connected more with female writers than males.

That is quite interesting, certainly nothing consciously done on my part. I actually usually do not write such femininely charged poems. I tend to think that most my works have a way of viewing women through a more masculine eye, in my portrayal of enchanted and bewitching seductresses.


Thanks for the confirmation DM and, as usual, excellent analysis blnk vrz. Yes, I definitely get the poem is about much more than that. If anything that aspect seems to exist more metaphorically. As I read it again I must say this is one of my favorites from you DM. Erotic existentialism, maybe? It's very, very interesting.

Thank you and once more you do hit upon the truth. This poem does speak of a sort of metaphoric masturbation if you will, or using allusions and suggestion of masturbation as symbolic of something more internal, psychological, spiritual, however one may choose.

[cogs]

wonderful, and i would have liked to know more, without the sexual references, as i think you could really have taken this far, and i have been wondering alot about this lately, the internal feminine essence. i'm glad that you did write about something that comforts.

[Dinkleberry2010]

I do not view this as a poem about you personally at all. I view this as a very objective poem; even though it is in a sense an inward journey into your being. To me, that's the most fascinating thing about this poem--it is both inward and outward at the same time.

[Dark Muse]

I do not view this as a poem about you personally at all. I view this as a very objective poem; even though it is in a sense an inward journey into your being. To me, that's the most fascinating thing about this poem--it is both inward and outward at the same time.

You are quite perceptive. It is true, when I wrote this poem, while it is about an inward journey, I was not truly writing it about myself personally, perhaps a more general concept of womanhood, or some attempt to actually view women from a feminine eye, which I never truly was very good at.

[firefangled]

...I was not truly writing it about myself personally, perhaps a more general concept of womanhood, or some attempt to actually view women from a feminine eye, which I never truly was very good at.

I'm surprised at this statement. IMHO your poems demonstrate more acuity than you seem to think in viewing both women and the world with a feminine eye, certainly these last two. I think there is a fine art in writing erotically with subtlety.

[Sampson]

The vocabulary you use so well and so subtly in this beautiful poem is fantastically ambiguous. However you wrote, and however it is interpreted, this poem evokes a powerful physical sensation (regardless of gender). The only suitable adjective I can think of to sum up this is human.

[Dark Muse]

I'm surprised at this statement. IMHO your poems demonstrate more acuity than you seem to think in viewing both women and the world with a feminine eye, certainly these last two. I think there is a fine art in writing erotically with subtlety.

Thank you, it is hard to explain, but I write a lot of poems about women from a mans point of view or I suppose my perception of a mans point of view. It just seems to come natural to me, to write poems about men pining after women, or being seduced by women. I have written a lot of poems from the first person point of view in which in my mind the narrator was a man addressing a woman.

I do not feel like a lot of the poems I write about women, are actually written from a woman's point of view.

[Delta40]

I nterpreted the title rites of womanhood about woman and less about intimate interactions which is the impression your poem gave. your imagery as always is strong but my perceptioni of womanhood rites is probably embedded in a way that it does not understand what you are getting at, if that makes sense.