The Prophet

[Magpie]

Edit #1

The day I fell asleep­, the lights went on
in studio six.  Behind my lids, miles of --- I'm not sure if lids is one of the many subtle cooking references, as in the 'lids' of pans, either way, could it be 'beneath my lids'
cable and gaffer tape twisted around Herakles --- The way this comes across to me is 'miles of cable and miles of gaffer tape' which I'm not totally sure was your intention --- I'm presuming Hercules is spelt in the Greek way to show the connection to Hera, although I don't know if I fully understand that connection, although having said that just this moment I've thought about how the blind prophet was male and turned into a female... this would make sense
preparing hydra three ways as Hera criticised --- Should Hydra be capitalised? I also kind of want it to be 'nine ways' one for each head, but I understand that 'three ways' has other possibilities
his lack of sauce.  Two fallen stars turned to boys on a --- I get the sexual innuendo with sauce, but then after that I'm a bit lost, perhaps my lack of knowledge in Greek mythology, which I'm realising more and more is a necessity when reading this.
staging ground; a city wall was raised, razed,--- I really aprreciate the play on words here, and although it would be wrong for me to say 'cliche' but I can't help but think that the 'raised, razed' must have been used before... 'braised'?? yeah I know, just ignore me
dusted and fed to wolves with crossed eyes.
 
I rolled and the world turned with me.  Dido --- Once again I'm unaware of the significance of Dido here --- That's why it may sound stupid when I say, any possibility that this could be Rhea which is an anagram of Hera which could fit in with the puzzled aspect 
puzzled isoperimetrically and someone found the salt.--- 'isoperimetrically' - cheers for the eductaion 
No, there is no room in this dish for an elephant, --- The shift in the speakers tone is a bit confusing here, who is the speaker telling that there is 'No room', is the first 'No' necessary 
unless poached.  Beware, the idols are burning.  --- Again with 'Beware' I'm wondering who is being spoken too. Without the 'No' and 'Beware' in these two lines the passage would work fine, which leads me to thinking even more that there is a specific purpose for their inclusion, but it's not currently making sense to me.
 
Here in sleep, I am divine and diviner.  It has happened:--- I can't help but want to be part of the cooking analogy game and therefore was thinking of the possibility of 'It has been well done: overdone' --- I done gone too far.
it will happen.  Myth and man are no mystery.  You turn
your back, fiddle and the world catches fire.  Where are --- I'm making a connection between 'world' here and 'world' in the previous stanza and linking them both to the cooking analogy, which confuses me a little bit because I thought hydra was on the menu, or is hydra representitive of the world, or have I just gone too far again
your roses now?  Nobody will have you.  You are evicted,
extracted, amazed.  I offer you my vision; you cast it aside.  
 
Tomorrow I will wake to blindness, rise, and tread my eyes
into the dirt. 


Original

The day I fell asleep­, the lights went on
in studio six.  Behind my lids, miles of 
cable and gaffer tape twisted around Herakles
preparing hydra three ways as Hera criticised
his lack of sauce.  Two stars turned to boys on a
staging ground and a city wall was raised, razed, 
dusted and fed to wolves with crossed eyes.
 
I rolled and the world turned with me.  Princesses
puzzled isoperimetrically and someone found the salt. 
No, there is no room in this dish for an elephant,
unless poached.  Mind, the idols are burning.  All is dark.
 
Here in sleep, I am divine and diviner.  It has happened:
it will happen.  Myth and man are no mystery.  You turn
your back, fiddle and the world catches fire.  Where are
your roses now?  Nobody will have you.  You are evicted,
extracted, amazed.  I offer you my vision.
 
Tomorrow I will wake to blindness, rise, and tread my eyes
into the dirt.  You will never see.

Hi Leanne,
This is the kind of poem I would have read two years ago and then run away many many miles from because it scared the crap out of me. It still does a little bit, but I can kind of see where the keys are to open it up now. It may be just me and my lack of education in greek mythology and advanced geometry but there is a hell of a lot here to decode and unravel before it starts to kind of make sense but even then I'm still at a loss as to what it's all about. Although having said that everytime I read it I get a few more bits and pieces and I did enjoy the many hidden cooking references and different bits of word play. I also enjoyed the fact that I had to work so hard, although I'm not sure if that was your intention, without google I would have... ermmm had to wait until the library was open. But that is the modern world... I do have google and whoever writes a poem knows that the reader has every opportunity to find out even the most obscure reference.

Secretly I'm hoping that your going to come back and say that 'yes Herakles and Hera was intentional and represented the blind prophet in both male and female form', you have no idea how happy that would make me. Just pretend, even if I'm wrong.

Not sure how much of this is more like analysis than a critique but hopefully there are elements that were getting towards a critique.

Thanks for the read,
Mark