Saturday, October 18, 2014

"Tempted"

"Eve Tempted" Marble @1877 by Hiram Powers
Tempted

Frozen in marble,
a single moment should not define her.

Reveals not a tender, mothering hand
nor a life of toil and togetherness

but deep seductive longing;

an Eve whose glory and sorrow
resides in each and every one of us.

by Margaret Bednar, October 18, 2014

For "Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Artistic Interpretations - Poetic Marble"

I had a hard time deciding which word to use:  shame, sorrow, guilt - and a whole handful of others.  I finally (I think) chose sorrows as guilt and shame do lead to sorrow.  I liked the single syllable sound and the two hard "g's"… but I think it says more with the word sorrow.   Hmm… I may change my mind, though.

8 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

nice! we are but flawed humans.

Vandana Sharma said...

Desire to commit sin..guess we all have it in us very deep inside somewhere hidden and it pops out at some time.

brudberg said...

I think the end says more.. so much captured in those few lines..

humbird said...

Indeed, 'resides in each and every one of us.'

Hannah said...

I agree, "a single moment should not define her." and I think your choice of sorrow is a good one. Great challenge, thank you, Margaret.

Kerry O'Connor said...

I guess we all inherit the curse of Eve, having bodies and minds and hearts our own, yet seemingly the burden of carrying out someone else's purpose, be it parent, husband, child or boss.

hedgewitch said...

Yes, one of oppression's tools is making us ashamed for the very flesh we wear, that if either or both religion and science are accurate, is the flesh and appearance we were given through no choice of our own. It's confusing to me how this fact has been turned against women so very often. Thanks for the interesting prompt, Margaret.

Anonymous said...

to me the irony is in Powers and the other sculptors of his era using the power of their art to unveil nudity, while it seems that a motivating force was simply that they wanted to look at naked women. seems a bit Oedipal, too, to unmask Eve, the mother of us all, according to that storyline. you've touched on something here, Margaret ... ~