11 Feb Poets’ Corner: Feela for Valentine’s Day!
The medieval English poet Geoffrey Chaucer often took liberties with history, placing his poetic characters into fictitious historical contexts that he represented as real. No record exists of romantic celebrations on Valentine’s Day prior to a poem Chaucer wrote around 1375. In his work ‘Parliament of Foules,’ he links a tradition of courtly love with the celebration of St. Valentine’s feast day–an association that didn’t exist until after his poem received widespread attention. The poem refers to February 14 as the day birds (and humans) come together to find a mate. When Chaucer wrote, “For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne’s day / Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate,” he may have invented the holiday we know today…
Cupid’s Day has since evolved into the signature day of the year when a gift of any kind ought to express positive sentiments within a primary relationship of any kind: married or partnered, straight or gay – or the one with yourself. Yes, Valentine’s Day seems to call for special gifts of intimacy – roses, chocolate, jewelry, tickets to a game – or a beautiful poem like the one below by regular contributor David Feela, this one about Persephone. Which makes sense because the goddess embodies the threshold moment the holiday occupies: the hinge between winter and return, death and desire, dormancy and renewal.
David Feela, courtesy Amazon.
Persephone
To know her better—
that goddess who walks the earth
with flowers circling her head—
maybe I should have called out,
begged her to slow down,
posed the sort of question
that leads to combing my fingers
through the tangle of her
fresh green hair or better yet,
looked deep into the thaw
of her pond-like eyes, asked
if she would sit and please explain
these harbingers of the season,
the birds and the bees.
David Feela’s latest book is “Feelasophy: Selected Essays.”
The work is a collection of about 70 essays Feela penned over the past decade for local and regional publications throughout the Mountain West and beyond.
Rather than dense academic philosophy, signature Feela offers up personal, observant, witty reflections on life’s absurdities and delights.
“Feelasophy: Selected Essays” follows earlier works including poetry collections and a previous essay volume (“How Delicate These Arches,” 2011).
“Feelasophy” is Feela’s fifth book overall and his latest major work, described by critics as “funny, poignant and rich with meaning.”
Find it at http://davidfeela.com
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.