The Maddening Night

Io Bacchus! Io Dionysus!
You wild eyed child wrapped in fire and ivy.
The discordant flutes play loud mocking the heavy maddening drums.

O Beautiful! O Desirous!
You beautiful youth of ageless passion.
Would the satyrs trample me underfoot e’en as the maenads rend me to pieces.

O Madness! O Passion!
Stripping me of civilized pretense.
Naked we run into the woods racing to the grove where the Beautiful One awaits.

O Longing! O Surrender!
Struck down by the thrysus wielders.
I form the ground kissing the feet of the Watcher of Woes, trodden upon by the Lord of Unmaking.

O Fierceness! O Consuming!
Handed over to the Maddening Throngs.
I cry out your name in surrender e’en as your faithful consume me in adoration to you.

O Savior! O Freedom!
Tearing at the construct of the blind.
I number among your maenads, pulling apart the lies of civilization, the crushing blinds of powerful men.

O Silent! O Shadow!
Wrapped in the mysteries unspoken.
Your bull tramples me further even as your tears clean me of my wounds.

O Brilliance! O Caller!
You speak my name and I attend.
Reformed, I lay lifeless until you pour over me the cup of your many named blessings.

O Mystery! O Confusion!
The dawn wakes me from strange night.
I find myself alone in the trampled grove, where I’m told none had gone but me.

O Quickening! O Whisperer!
You’ve left your mark within me.
Now all I see is beautiful and enlivened, as if your ivy softens my foot, as if your fire illumines my path.

Io Bacchus! Io Dionysus!
The world still yet holds secrets.
And I shall seek them all, that I may yet view your beautiful cold face brightened once more in my madness.

~~~

This piece was my entry to the 2012 House of Learning Artistic Agon held by Sannion of The House of Vines. Now that the voting is closed, and the winner announced, I may repost the entry on my blog.