Long Tartarus Poems
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Aeneid Book 6: The Descent into the Underworld
by Virgil
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch
The Sibyl began to speak to Aeneas:
“God-blooded Trojan, son of Anchises,
descending into the Underworld’s easy
since Death’s dark door stands eternally unbarred.
But to retrace one’s steps and return to the surface:
that’s the conundrum, that’s the catch!
Godsons have done it, the chosen few
whom welcoming Jupiter favored
and whose virtue merited heaven.
However, even the Blessed find headway’s hard:
immense woods barricade boggy bottomland
where the Cocytus glides with its dark coils.
But if you insist on ferrying the Styx twice
and twice traversing Tartarus,
if Love demands you indulge in such madness,
listen closely to how you must proceed...”
Keywords/Tags: Virgil, Aeneid, descent, underworld, Aeneas, death, door, Jupiter, heaven, woods, Cocytus, River Styx, Stygian, Hades, Tartarus, voyage, journey, love, madness, god, gods
Unto Acheron, great river of woe,
the buried to the entrance gate are led,
in the underworld to Charon below
to ferry across the souls of the dead.
Upon your lips, your eyes, a coin receive,
a fare lest you be trapped between two worlds -
allowed to enter but never to leave
where the waters of oblivion purls.
Where Furies dwell and Hellhounds guards the gate
and souls are judged in Hades’s deathless reign -
to wander the Styx and Lethe in wait
till rulers of gods and men part us twain.
The Pit of Tartarus where the soul yields
or sweet blissful isles of Elysian Fields.
Written: May 2012
REQUIEM FOR LOVE
Let the flood of my tears drown this day
And soar my spirit to the base of tartarus…!
O Cupid…come Pothos and Himeros
Where are thy powers to hold still?
Are thou wearied by human caprices,
Of whose hands fate lies then?
Elusive Aphrodite, of all thy allures
Thou perish in fantasies of beauty.
O fair rose, my heart is pierced,
Beneath thy bed is frame of thorns.
Gather ye four winds in monotonous drone
And let thee pines chime a dirge
O love...love…love…my love…my joy…
Has now lain a wreath upon my heart!
Years of love intrigues, of dreams, sacrifice,
Pain, trust, consolation and determination…
Is sold out a day to another who knows not,
For a piece of coin and a parcel of fancy.
Lento… lento the knell for a broken heart…
Love is clothed a shadow, beauty a mask!
Cry… for what is broken so shall remain
Never to be wiped, never to be patched!
Did you hear!
It's quite near
Oh, I can feel your fear
Just lend me your ear
Try not to shed a tear
I have lost everything dear
What am I talking about?
Let's listen and figure out
A stab straight to the heart kills no doubt
That sound of a breaking
Depression has awakened
Behold what I'm making
It's my heart that has broken apart
I always felt it from the very start
Now it will be immortalized
In this piece of art
Sunshine turns to rain
Delight becomes an eternal pain
Feeding on this impermanent glee
And casting what's left of it
In the deep blue sea
What a monster is Depression
No form of expression
Can make this discussion
— About this Monster Depression —
As a small seed, it began
Eating me from the inside
Now that I'm a man
The tree grew high and wide
Buds of delight, delightful was their sight
They became deprived of light
It was taken away, the light of day
A mighty tree it stood
Smelling of drowsy death
Its sight alone would
Take into the air your quiet breath
It was worn twigs like thorns
For my tragic life, it mourns
I'm the bad guy
And you are the nice ones
The dark clouds in the sky
And you are the suns
My goodness was given to Hades
My heart is full of tragedies
Are they unknown to Thanatos?
Who will give them to the belly of Tartarus?
I want to change my tragic fate
But I'm too late, it's Death that I'll taste
It doesn't await, and has already opened its gate
Now let me welcome Death
Though it won't be my last breath.
April is the month Persephone comes back
from Tartarus, crossing the river of death, Styx,
with her stillborn child in her breast. The river she crosses with
her child though flows while carrying the empty souls, it does not move.
The river she crosses for the sake of her child though ferries the dead on the boat, it shows no emotion.
April is the month Persephone comes back
to this side of the pool of memory holding dead child in her breast.
For the curse of seven unripe pomegranate seeds became Hades’ chain, Persephone, who spent long and shivering cold winter months
in the bosom of an unloved husband at Tartarus, comes back turning her relieved, yet deep anxious face, away from the bright sunlight shining on the other side of black poplars forest.
April is the month Persephone, the childless mother,
comes back as a rancorous sad lullaby, while soothing
her swollen breasts with sighs, holding her stillborn child
closely on her tight breast to let the child suck her teat.
April is the month Persephone mourning in the black chiton
comes back as a well of tears. Each time she advances,
she cries because it is so pitiful for her to realize
that the child in her arms is breathless.
Each time she steps forward, she cries because it is so woeful
for her to acknowledge that the child in her arms is soulless.
April is the month the barren woman, Persephone,
who lived in the netherworld to experience such a miserable life
during the dark and long shivering winter months, comes back
with the stillborn child wrapped in the quilt, woven with yarns
spun from the threads of sighs as she warp of resentment,
and yarns spun from the threads of tears as the woof of grudge,
in her feeble weary arms.
A methylated river,
Is cursed forevermore
Its waters will forever,
Lap a sulfur shore
A crimson fire river,
Of burning and sulfur,
Forever will be known as,
The Nahar di Nur
Its waters burn and blister,
They tortuously bend
To Tartarus below,
They slavishly descend
The crimson fire river,
Of burning and sulfur,
Forever will be known as,
The Nahar di Nur
I murmured to myself,
“How desolate a sight!
To behold, on this mountain,
On this supernal night!
What demonic Naiad,
Has done this to the land?
Was it Angel, or Watcher,
Nephilim, or Man?”
A Naiad of the forest,
Suddenly appeared
She told me, speaking softly,
(Which pacified my fear)
“I am no Angel, nor Watcher,
Nephilim, or Man
Yet I will surely tell you,
Who did this to the land”
“The crimson fire river,
Was once a lucid stream
It waters had the clearness,
Of a lucid dream
The fragrance of the river,
Perfumed the summer breeze
Its all-surpassing beauty,
Excelled the Pleiades”
“Yet now, the crimson river,
Is cursed forevermore
Its waters will forever,
Lap a sulfur shore
The methylated river,
Contaminates the land
Polluted by the wanton,
Activities of Man”
When the Naiad finished speaking,
She began to gently weep
Tears had starting strolling,
Down her silent cheek
She said, “Oh, in exile -
I must leave this weary land,
I must go and find a place,
Faraway from Man”
“To find waters everlasting,
As the streams within
The waters of Meribah,
The rock of Rephidim
Yea - I must fly away,
To the streams within
The waters of Meribah,
The rock of Rephidim”
Then the Naiad vanished,
And was seen no more
The only sight was current,
That lapped a sulfur shore
And the only sound was silence,
Yet unbeknownst to me
The Naiad still was weeping,
For all eternity
And the methylated river,
Is still crimson to this day
Forever will its waters,
Lap a sulfur bay
A crimson fire river,
Of burning and sulfur
Forever will be known as,
The Nahar di Nur
Before the Light of the Sun and the stars began to shine,
Dwelled the Winged Chaos, in pitch as darkened as red wine,
His companions were Nyx the Night, Erebus the Darkness,
And Tartarus the Abyss, the dungeon for wickedness.
Soon Night with black wings opened, laid a sterile egg inside,
The bosom of Darkness which existed far and wide.
From this strange egg came the beautiful Eros God of Love.
Who bore the Human race the first to see the light above.
Robert paced his room trying to summon enough courage,
To go to the dance, and ask for Leah’s hand in marriage.
He had loved Leah from first sight but had hardly spoken.
Tonight he felt that his lonely heart would rise unbroken.
Leah wore a pink taffeta ball gown and looked divine,
She flirted with all the boys with conversations benign,
As Robert come close to her she giggled and ignored him,
Robert took a deep breath and said “This is not just a whim,
But will you make me the happiest man and marry me?”
People in the hall erupted with laughter at his plea.
The crazy, loudest laugh came from Leah herself sadly,
And Robert ran from the hall into the wild storm madly.
In the darkness he walked lost and alone down the highway,
Eros with sun golden wings appeared at the break of day.
Please come with me my son and I will put your heart to rest,
The darkness came in and covered everything heaven blessed.
"The Winter's Lullaby"
Choking noble light held by the hands of Fate
As deceived Persephone enters Hades gate
The burning suns falling through the universe.
Despairing and alone not a coppers worth
A bitter cold blankets Gaia's tears in a frozen sea of glass
While the stupefied intoxicated serpent drowned with a laugh.
Undulating sands barricades into immovable glacier,
Infectious prison walls destroyed the strength of redeeming savior.
Chariot of the flame plunges into the water’s bed
Fate’s tepid scarlet scissor hands sever the music thread
Astaea’s darkened soaked mural melts with eternal dread
Seeing red, alluring sirens sang as the music bled
Unfathomable lamented shrieks surged as the music tore
Obsidian tributaries erodes the forbidden door
Eros scorned wound feeds the ravished horde of succubi
Remote hollow temple bell wailed the closing cry
Captured in the dance of loves and hates tempest cyclone
Drums of madness orchestrates into the perfect tone
The infernal flame explodes from the mouth of Tartarus
Driven oblivion crescendos for the pending chorus
The stentorian cracks of nefarious shots being fired
Frantically gasping for the final breath of faith hope and desire
Tragic petrified tears from soundless screams of the choir
Condemned whisper of the drum crucified on barbed wire
Cold candle rests under the gaze of the vastness
No kiss or love to awake the entombed princess
Crimson emaciated curtains descend upon the floor
Fathomless, eviscerated, veiled; the music is no more
Form:
Freedom ~ an inked kingdom
of macabre mirrors,
a vermiform lie
veiling the vehement suffering
amidst serpent estuaries,
surging within strangled skin,
as if I am the living sin,
jinxed by the crawling creatures
in the lamented labyrinth
of deceitful dreams,
inhaling venomous vapors
rising from the cursed creeks
that failed to caress
the brittle bones of delirious dawn,
where the nocturnal owl
sits, phasing stellar phantoms
on tattered twigs,
oblivious to the piercing pain I breathe,
as poetry feels like
a somatic hallucination,
a reflection of the phoenix crescent,
a dialect the naive can never comprehend,
the voice of truth,
the jaded outline of mortality,
can never interpret~
as the last sacred light of twilight
r e m a i n s
unmarked and lost to the Earth.
O wicked wind beneath
the crestfallen wings
of cruising constellations,
will this piece of paper save me
from the maleficent violets
in the spitfire blaze
of stigmatized stars?
I am stuck ~ hell-bound,
troubled placing my
tongue on Freyja’s chalice of tears,
for I feel oblivion closer than death,
I taste the flames of Tartarus,
I dance with demons,
I sing to the malevolent moon,
I see in distorted dimensions.
But would the ignorant know
I hear beyond what’s spoken,
in search of Eden and love?
I give gratitude to your God,
but the veiled care not~
this is beyond the making
of a self-forged inferno.
I am the harbinger of harmony,
my soul aches
to paint your scarlet spheres
in butterfly bliss,
praying in secret
that the deviant daggers in my spine
would blossom into russet roses,
their petals ~ like an elixir
to my paranoid psyche,
paralyzed in the
catacomb chaos of insanity,
as the scorpion Sun
k i s s e s
me one more time
with sweetened poison.
While you,
the spectators of this twisted spectacle,
condemn my insomniac aura
to stain the essence of my existence
with condescending colors,
unaware that
introspection is a powerful weapon~
all blood is blue,
and we breathe hypocrisy
scrutinizing the unknown....
Written: February 14, 2025 for Brian Strand Contest
***********
In twilight, specks become stars,
bridges locked in gold,
Engraved whispers on walls
painted with diamond tears.
Singing hearts weave veins of
lilac and jasmine,
A serenade of soul waves,
ebbing through arid shadows.
Dark alleys paint a carnival of
spectral silhouettes,
Roots entwined in forlorn twilight colors,
wine-stained breaths.
Sorrow’s perfume lingers
like raindrops on roses,
Hushed epicedes echo
in the cinereous horizon.
Herbs waltz with heartbeats
beneath a canopy of trees,
Nestled nests console the forlorn
shorebirds at dusk.
Paranoia flickers like sparks
in a delicately hushed night,
Love’s choir sings an elusive refrain of
integrity and sins.
Delirium dances with
egoistic ghosts in the dark,
Tears pirouette like phantasmagoric
mist over steel syntax.
Blurring edges between serenity
and abyssal flare,
spheres clash in capricious vortices
under Gaia's winged gaze.
A whimsical trance catapults dreams
to an eldritch nebulae,
vortices float serenely,
weaving cosmic whispers into the night sky;
hushed murmurs from Eros to Erebus
blend seamlessly with somber threnodies;
in Gemini's embrace they linger
as wisps across Pyxis' burning calyx;
and while Maelstrom gnashes
within Tartarus' volcanic depths;
velleity blooms amidst fervent altar prayers
Echoes waft through Nexus' cavernous voids
to quench desires caught betwixt Chaos &
Gaia's visceral nexus hallucinations.