- Stars that appear close to each other from our perspective,
- may not be . . .
- The distance is deceptive . . .
- light years of darkness, invisible . . .
- O Venus! goddess
- who also names a planet,
- it is your intimacy. . .
- We are confused.
- First in the evening. . .
- last to leave. . . bright reflection!
- Brighter, it seems than distant suns
- even Sirius, Isis
- All disappear
- as Sol makes us self-conscious
- so close, so far. . .
- O fuck!
- Intimacy can fade to our next desire. . .
- What was once invisible
- approaches, seemingly, from within . . .
- Still we can venerate the everyday—
- qualities that make breath
- a pleasure.
- But O, light cast shadows . . .
- The crux—venery—our hunger
- to survive, to flourish. . .
- Consciousness tells us
- this animal has given this life’s body
- to feed us, our family, our neighborhoods . . .
- There are thanks to give. . .
- the wholeness
- O Venus, it is your intimacy. . .
- Mind completes a picture—
- clinical, well-scrubbed—
- an advertisement, a lie we can believe . . .
- We can pull back the bow-string, release
- the-who-we-think-we-are into that world
- & from the once-invisible
- something catches our eye.
- We say it is real, it is gold
- & we are undone . . .
- Someone cries out in frustration:
- “Venery stands for impurity,
- will lead to disease & ruin. . .”
- Someone else concludes: it can. . .
- Venus, goddess of love
- Who is Beauty that excites us
- to such a state as to see beyond
- ourselves
- to fathom. . .
- Or fear, we want to control, hoard.
- Your intimacy incites confrontation—
- a bullfight . . .
- Modern man tries to purge
- the beast:
- Man as man, alone.
- Nature as animal, nature as woman . . .
- Man against nature.
- “I am a thinking thing.”
- & the slaughterhouse was built.
- & the dignity of the mute, private animal is lost.
- & war, the trojan horse, was brought inside
- the city walls, the mind
- as venery becomes the hunt, merely
- to best the animal, the other . . .
- & the invisible which always connects us,
- no longer matters,
- though it is clearly a woven material . . .
- Mater, our Mother
- Goddess, you return to re-mind us
- we came to this life to enjoy these animal bodies.
- There is an underlying wholeness;
- the arrows of Love is your reminder
- I venerate you, I venerate you.
- I hold you high!