The
shepherd
Attis who
killed himself
for shame because the
Goddess Cybelle forbade
him to look at anyone
other than her – but he was weak
– lay with a nymph – died beneath a pine
Cybelle brought him back to life, now faithful
– pine log
now holy…
Andrew Wilson, 2024
Attis died by castrating himself beneath a pine tree following the awful wrath of Cybelle, a Roman Goddess of Fertility whereupon she had a change of heart and brought him back to life – needless to say he did not stray again… But this myth was celebrated by Romans (strange but true) by the bearing of a Pine log through the streets – Pines now being sacred to Attis. Christianity often subsumed old festivals into itself and this is one possible origin of the Yule Log…
I wrote more about it here.
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft asks us to write an Etheree poem about
Christmas tree(s) imagery, meanings, memories etc
or Conifer/Fir tree(s) imagery, mythology, memories etc
- must be an unrhymed poem
- no specific meter
- one stanza only
- 10 lines with no paragraphs
- graduating from 1 to 10 syllables
- [add lines 11 & 12 with just 2 syllables per line – my optional extra]
Thus the first line is monosyllabic; the second line has two syllables, and so on, until there’s ten syllables on the tenth line (then reverts to 2 syllables for lines 11 & 12 if you want this optional extra). The outline of your poem takes the concrete shape of a fir tree. Centre it on the page else left or right aligned it’s only half a tree! (X=syllables not words)