Astarte's arrival

When I started working on the One Womb project (see lift the veil which covers me), I didn't really know what these poems would become. I began by keeping a process journal of ideas, writing in coffee shops and wandering through bookstores for ideas. Some of those initial thoughts are still waiting to be developed. I was intrigued by a book, Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine, because it was written by two men. Turns out they have eight daughters between them and wrote this book as a sort of necessary journey as scholars and dads.

When my artist partner looked at my notes from the book, and I in turn looked at the sketches she created from those notes, the words "Vignettes-Goddess" were at the top of those sketches. Although some of poems are not about specific Goddesses I researched, a few are an attempt to retell and reconnect a part of their stories. Astarte's arrival is one such poem.

excerpt from "Astarte's arrival." sketch by Erin Croley

Astarte’s arrival

a star falls
to Byblos
becomes
Aphaca’s fiery explosion
helps lake waters steam
Astarte’s arrival

sacred stone left
in her wake builds
a sacred temple
in the water
feels the death of
her lover               why there?
and the gifts of
jewels and hair shaven
in initiation
priestesses rise

she wears horns
of Isis
entwined
with a snake and sun disk,
sits in the company
of lioness and sphinx,

gives the milk of life
in this form
more motherly
than petticoats and diapers
will ever be


©Erin Croley

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