I Thought the Name of the Movie was ‘American Piper.’
by Steven McCabe
I thought the name of the movie was ‘American Piper.’
Standing beside me in line was Enheduanna, Daughter of King Sargon:
A Princess, Poet, and Priestess from 4400 years ago.
With a serpent coiled around her arm and holding a clay tablet
Inscribed & encoded with cuneiform script.
As tall as me and bathed in moonlight.
I said ‘What are you doing here?’
She said, ‘I’m not here for the entertainment.’
We were suddenly engulfed in a sandstorm.
Vast, rolling hill-clouds of sand, engorged with heat, arose enclosing muffled sounds.
A harsh wind blew into my eyes.
I tried to grip her hand as she vanished and knew instinctively this was a mistake.
My finger grazed her palm and the cut I received refuses to heal.
I wake to find it encompassed within rings of moonlight. I wish I could say it was only a haze.
I never did see the movie and from what I hear the screen was half-buried.
Like a drive-in theatre in a snowstorm that stops all life from moving.
Snow falling as white as moonlight.
Melting and rushing water in the spring overflowing the oceans.
Banishment from Ur
You asked me to enter the holy cloister,
The giparu,
and I went inside, I the high priestess
Enheduanna!
I carried the ritual basket and sang
Your praise.
Now I am banished among the lepers.
Even I cannot live with you.
Shadows approach the light of day, the light
Is darkened around me,
Shadows approach the daylight,
Covering the day with sandstorm.
My soft mouth of honey is suddenly confused.
My beautiful face is dust.
Information and images concerning Enheduanna: http://www.transoxiana.org/0108/roberts-enheduanna.html
Pied Piper (Public Domain) image source: Ginn and Company The Common School Catalogue (Boston, MA: Ginn & Company Publishers, 1906)
Russian Orthodox Icon painted on wood: Artist unattributed (found on internet). The idea of using this image was inspired by the long history of Eastern Rites Churches in lands comprising modern day Iraq. A protective mother with her sacred child.
I do not claim ownership or copyright of the original images used as source material to digitally create new works of my own design for non-commercial purposes of commentary under Fair Use provisions of the copyright law.
Like the satire in ancient, Irish poetry this ‘whimsy’ I have concocted may express a darker indictment.
poemimage 
Your story-telling is a wonder to me. I don’t always understand it, but I am always enthralled, thank you.
Hello and thank you mn. I appreciate your thoughts and am very happy to hear your response to this work.
Brilliant.
Thanks very much for this vote of confidence Brenda.
Very intriguing blend of images and text. Mythology meets the artifacts of the 21st century. Well done ! 🙂
New forms of mass media, such as the blog, allows for new types of art to emerge. The lines between text, image, audio, motion blend as hyper-linked multi-linear expression evolves.
I have been exploring some of these forms on my blogs and I am always interested in others who step past the traditional boundaries of printed text to enter the open fields of digital text.
Thank you elmediat. & I understand what you are saying and you express it very well. I’ll check out your page. I enjoy exploring the visual possibilities of this media. Though lately I’ve felt like a sugar cube sculpture and it’s starting to rain. I need to get back to painting. I miss touch in all of this. It is a marvel though to use the screen like an illuminated manuscript and send image sequences out into the world of light tables.
This post is so rich – I love the various levels it works on – including the succinct demolition of the entertainment export. Brilliant stuff.
Thanks much Richard for this thought and the phrase beginning with the words ‘succinct demolition.’ Love how those words move and sound beside each other. I’d love to see a video of Shakespearean actors reciting those words.
That green is its own air. It is its own time and a world- pulling me . It is an emerald lens. The sand and the honey.
Thank you Jack. An Emerald lens! Your poetic impressions fill a circle with new air. Very much enjoyed and appreciated.
Glorious new twists and turns. Mesmerizing, Steve! Love the interplay.
Thank you Penn! And thank you for these Wonderful active descriptions – ‘twists and turns’ and ‘interplay.’ Those words create images in themselves!
Wow! Ravishing. Mythical. And the humour. Brilliant!
I feel bereft of her too. Going to read about her now.
As for your title … so piercing.
Thank you so very much. I’m glad this touched a nerve. I’m really glad to hear the title is piercing. Somehow your words ‘ravishing’ and ‘piercing’ fit together like yin yang.
Wow, how thrilling to read further about this long ago poet princess, the first female poet in history. So much to talk about including the note about her face not being stylised. How powerful she must have been personally. And the heart-rending line, “My beautiful face is dust.”
Fantastic and fascinating for sure. Yes she surely must have been powerful. ‘My beautiful face is dust.’ Heart-rending line indeed.
thanks for the visit. interesting site you have here.
Thank you Virgilio.
I thought the name of the movie was “American Viper”. A story about a pot-head in the 1930’s.
I’ll have to look for that one Hansi! Thanks for the tip! :- )
The illuminated manuscript reference is fitting. The light is sublime. A glorious ebb and flow of weightless and heavy.
I could imagine this piece as a physical scroll within an entire gallery of your work…
Thank you Karen. I’d like to see this as a scroll. Maybe a holographic scroll. Or I could interpret it with paint. You have me thinking.