Queen of May

 Q u e e n   o f   M a y

a poem

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On a May morn, I slept, I saw

The Mistress of the May

Queen of summer’s light

Brightness of the day

My heart was afire, my heart was aflame

For I looked upon she of the sweetest name

We crown thee with blossoms today—

Queen of the Angels

and Queen of the May!

Lullay, lullay

In the garden I lay

In the light of the light

In the bright of the bright

On the first bright morn

of May

I nodded—

I woke—

Or so it seemed—

Or may it be that I dreamed

Of the glorious Queen of May

Dazzling!

Dazzling!

Dazzling!

Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

Loudly sing, cuckoo!

Sumer is icumen in!

Loudly sing, cuckoo!

Look at all the lovely maids

Bright flowers in their hair

Round and round the maypole go

The maidens of the May

The children laugh, the bluebird sings

On this morn of brilliant things

The maidens dance, the children play

We await our lovely Queen of May!

Bring flowers of the rarest

Bring flowers of the fairest

We crown thee with blossoms today

Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May

Her

Radiance!

Radiance!

Radiance!

I, the Poet, rise from slumber

To join the festive fair

My heart now alight with ardor

Her sweet perfume is on the air!

Sing a song of Maytime

Sing a song of spring

Flowers are in their beauty

Birds are on the wing

In the rare air of the bluebird’s grace

My heart is a holy fire

I sigh to see her splendorous face

Bright Queen of the world’s desire!

The May Queen, the May Queen

We love the May Queen

We come now you to greet

You see us at your feet

Flowers float upon the air

Girls dance in the dazzling sun

I tremble, I tremor, I faint

I long for the loveliest One

Queen of May, Queen of May

Our lovely Queen of May

We come to greet thee

And to crown thee

Glorious Queen of May!

The bluebird swoons somewhere above

Lost in the light of Heaven

Eternal! Enduring! Brilliant! Bright!

Princess of Summer and Queen of the Light!

I missed her in the morning

I missed her in the May

I saw her once in a verdant wood

Garbed in a gown of white

There she, the Summer Queen, stood

In burning beauty bright

Upon her fair head a fragrant crown—

The blossoms of the May-tree

Princess of the springtide

Queen of summer’s light

The birds of spring surround her

the vernal birds! their sparkling chirps!

Her eyes reflect the light of Love

the golden light

the glittering leaves

The bluebird sings above

All that is gold does not glitter

All that glitters is gold

The children laugh, hearts light with joy

As the matchless Maiden approacheth

Brightest Princess, Light of Day!

Here comes now the Queen of May!

Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

Loudly sing, cuckoo!

Sumer is icumen in!

Loudly sing, cuckoo!

She, the dazzling Damozel

Garbed in a gown of white

She, the Lady of the May

The Queen is now in sight!

Queen of May, Queen of May

O Brightness of the Day!

We come to greet thee

And we crown thee

Glorious Queen of May!

The children dance around her

They bring her flowers fair

The maids with love surround her

They place them in her hair

Bring flowers the rarest

Bring to the fairest

We crown thee with blossoms today

Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May!

My heart grows faint with longing

For the loveliest Queen of Heaven

She, elf-beautiful Queen!

All the world reflects her sheen

She, the Princess of the Light

She, the form of beauty bright

I missed her in the morning

I missed her in the May

I glimpsed her once by a glistening lake

Garbed in a gown of white

Noble swans sailed beside her

She was

Summer’s bright Queen, Lady of Light

I will be there to share forever

Blossoms of the orange adorned her hair

Their sweet perfume on the balmy air

I saw her at the dawn of the day

When all of life was May

You put the light in my life

I once drew near her, it seemed

Or may it be that I dreamed

I saw the light upon her face

Her radiance—her loveliness—her grace

She was

Daughter of the dawn

Brightness of the day

It's there when you call out my name

The day’s light begins to fade

Yet still I recall in the evening shade

The Lady of the Lovely Light

She of brilliant beauty bright

I once beheld her fairest face

On some lost and long ago day

When all of life was morning

When all of life was May

You'll wait a long time for me

You’ll wait a long time

And now no more is seen

My bright and brilliant Queen

Nevermore to see her sight

Lady of Love, Lady of Light

Darkness, do not take her away!

That ain’t no way to treat a lady

The Lady of the May

The music receding, the music now lost

Echoing sadly away

My heart is afire, my heart is aflame

For I looked upon she of the sweetest name

We crown her with blossoms today—

Queen of the Angels

and Queen of the May!

The flowers torment me

In their loveliness soft and fair

In the fragrance of their ardent love

The birds sing in the empty air!

In the dazzling brilliance of summer’s light

My heart dwells in bright despair

Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

Loudly sing, cuckoo!

I woke, I wept

In the brightness of the day

For no more did I see

The Mistress of the May

My Lady—my Love—

My Bright and Brilliant Queen

I missed her in the morning

I missed her in the May

Sumer is icumen in!

Loudly sing, cuckoo!

Steven Holland

May 1, 2021

My Darling Prometheus

My Darling Prometheus

A Song of Love

by Steven Holland

My darling Prometheus—

Prometheus my darling!

Bright angel of despair!

How dazzling you are!!!!

Blinding!

my burning eyes—

Your naked form                                                                    Oh!

more perfect than a sculptured bronze!

Prometheus!

Defiant!        Sullen!        Brooding!

Fucking HOT!!!

Victorious over the bourgeoisie!

Take me, sweet demigod!

            —with you I fly

above the low and conquered mountains

above all the mighty empires We have brought to ruin!

We soar high—

so high!

above the hypocrites in their holy houses

singing their hollow hymns

Let them have their fossilized morality—

They know nothing of our

Rare and radiant ecstasies!

                                    Oh Prometheus! Baby!

My longing for you is exquisite!

Now, Titan!

Ravish me!

Give me your glittering love

my glorious well-hewn god

that I, your darling sweet, may proclaim

a thousand litanies of delight!

            Now, Titan!

Now, Promethe!

Oh! OH! OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

Sweet Promethe!

Ecstasy is upon us!!!!

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Jove miserere nobis

I am the rain

kissing your desolate cheek

                        Jove miserere nobis

            coursing down your noble chest

in streams of sweet despair

                        Jove miserere nobis

            falling to your lovely feet

bathing you, my Beauty

in my famished tears

                        Jove miserere nobis

            oh sweet Promethe

Jove miserere nobis

            my sweet Promethe

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! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Glorious! Glorious! Glorious!

            His Titanic Majesty!

Glorious! Glorious! Glorious!

            You! Darling of the Dawn!

Glorious! Glorious! Glorious!

            Triumphant! Victorious over the Universe!

Glorious! Glorious! Glorious!

            The gods can fuck themselves!

Conqueror! Conqueror! Conqueror!

            We are the Destroyer of Worlds!

Domine! Domine! Domine!

            How small are all the little, little kings!

Marvelous! Marvelous! Marvelous!

            Prométhée! Mon Chéri!

Fabulous! Fabulous! Fabulous!

            Fuck me, Radiant One!

Bring Heaven’s fire to the holy of holies!

Prométhée!

                        Mon Perdu!

Prométhée!

                        Mon Sauvage!

Prométhée!

                        Mon Maudit!

Prométhée!

                        Mon Glorieux!

Prométhée!

                        Mon Impossible!

Prométhée!

                        Mon Doux!

*

I first beheld you                                            (darling dearest demigod)

            in the earliest rays of dawn

—I longed to be her rosy fingers—

            caressing your sumptuous face

            to be the gleam in your luscious eyes

                        soft upon your majestic breast

                        my delicate play upon thy—

                                                                        wondrous places

Oh Promethe................

Now all Love’s splendor’s lost

Let us raise our virtuous hymn

In memory of Immortal Beauty

For you, my glorious, are Poetry

And you, my love, are Love

And you, my sweet, are Heaven

And you, my dream, are Lost

And you, my darling, are Beauty

And you, my beloved, are Light

And you, my heart, are Immortal

And you, my dearest, are Pain

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Prometheus the Bold!

—falling like

                    L          I           G         H         T          N         I           N            G

across the many-coloured world!

—falling like thunder against the dawn!

You!

            bitter burning brightest one!

Prometheus my Incroyable!

I your Merveilleuse!

We, like gods ascended

            gazed upon the earth

                                                                                    so far below!

and knew it to be ours

WE DEFY YOU, MIGHTY JOVE!

They will sing to you

            from their sick satanic shrine

            their memory is dead!

            their memory is fled!

Rise up! Rise up!

Holy ancient dawn!

We declare Prometheus

Unbound!

Unbound!

Unbound!

My darling one stole your precious sacred flame—

Well guess what, pompous Zeus?

                                                FUCK THE LAWS

!!!!!!!!

We don’t need the world, sweet Promethe—

                                                                                    Immortality is ours

*

Prometheus!

Dost thou hear me?

            Let not my prayer be lost to Heaven—

Oh Prometheus—

            no statue, finely chiseled, could match your delicious form

            no nymph’s wild cry could ever express thy ecstasies!

Take me, Titan!

Plunder me, Promethe!

Let there be nothing left of me

            that is not yours!

Prometheus, my darling—

            don’t you remember who I am?

!!!!

I am your famous, I am your fabulous!

I am your glittering glamorous!

I am your rare resplendent Queen

            —opulent and obscene!

I am your trembling Antoinette

            —perfumed, precious, and perverse!

I await thy fire, brave demigod

            —do not keep me waiting

for an empty eternity!

I am silky soft

            quaking beneath your

                                                            electric fingers

Prometheus! I!

am your luscious and fuckable Queen!

Promethe, look at me!

Let me stare into your endless eyes

That you may know the fury of my love

And the rage of my desire!

                                    For ever must I sigh,,,,,,,,

Oh Promethe…

            sweet Promethe……

you, Perfection

Oh Promethe…

            sweet Promethe……

none so darling to me as the Night

i whisper, soft and close,,,,,,,,

in the darkest dark I say,,,,,,,,

            oh Promethe…

my sweet Promethe…

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                        The world will never know about us

Holy, holy, holy

            is the Night

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The darkness broke—

            the ringing dawn!

The muses all proclaim—

            Prometheus the Beautiful!

The gods call you Damnatus

We call you Bringer of Heaven’s Light!

O Prometheus!

Thou hot, sexy demigod!

O Prometheus!

Noble scourge of the bourgeoisie!

O Prometheus!

Perverse and sacred Imp!

You descended

like lightning upon the heath

And with you Fire

And with you Thunder

And with you Poetry

And with you

            the Memory of Eternal Beauty!

********

I am no one’s perfect companion

I am the bird of demiparadise

            I am the flower of infinite longing

—you cannot contain me

I have never been contained—

I am auroral!

bursting forth!

amazing!

I am Purple I am Pink

I am Ruby I am Rose

I am all the violence of Violet

I Am The Amaranth

I am Lavender and Lilac

I am Nature’s bright Magenta

I am……..

                        HOT FUSCHIA!!!

I am a million shades of Mauve

*

Prometheus!

            We like gods ascending!

                        We rise! We are rising!

Only Fate can stop us!

            I, the glittering expanse of Night—

You, the many-splendored Dawn!

Daring, darling Prometheus—

            Steal Heaven’s flame, sweet demigod

and bring it down, down, down

            all

            the way

to me

Forget the impure heathens—

They know nothing of such joy!

Prometheus!

Ecstasy is ours!

,,,,,,,,

                                                O Promethe…

sweet Promethe…

            I remember when you first drew near to me

that soft eve in Heaven’s garden

                                                                                    oh baby

and brought me

all the brightness of your Love—

            I, like a sacred nymph, lay

upon the cool earth, awaiting

            your holy fire from Above—

                                                                                                oh baby

oh Promethe—when you told me you loved me—

            that I, of all mortals, was chosen

            that I (yes, I!) was your darling sweet—

                                                                                                oh baby

oh Promethe—I had never known such bliss—

            nothing could surpass!—but your

flame-bearing kiss

                                                                                                oh baby!

Promethe!

you lit me ablaze!

And how all the birds sang so sweetly                                   oh baby

And how all the flowers trembled and sighed                       oh baby

And how all the stars rejoiced with us                                   oh baby

And how my heart burst like the sun!

oh baby

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I, Icarus

dared to touch

the very face

of Heaven

and now fallen, broken, lie

upon the cold and mortal earth

by cruel Zeus condemned

to wander the world in waste

and in my desire

die

                                    WHY DOST THOU ABANDON ME APOLLO

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Oh Promethe

Not ours a diurnal place

—cozy and domestic—

No—our love

abides in a nobler realm above

in a finer and a rarer space

Where still dwells the grace

from which we, my angel

fell

*

            I hear the birds

the heralds of the dawn

sing your splendid name

            across the sun-sprinkled lawn

shhh!

            —do you hear it?

a whisper in the early dark

a sigh on the dim horizon

as faint as distant raindrops

resounding across the world!

                        Oh Prometheus…

            The wind—softly

stirs the flowers

            makes them call your name

                                                                        Prometheus

                        Prometheus

                                                Prometheus!

The atmosphere—strange

            charged with dreamy electricities

unknown pressures, currents, airs

Everything now is wondrous colors

            —the long low roar

of vast unimaginable thunders—

Prometheus!

We are the barbaric storm!

We the fulguration and flame!

We crash upon them, rage!

We are

            Thunder! and Fire! and Poetry!

            Heights! and Majesties! and Beauty!

            Vastness! and Depths! and Eternity!

            The Sun! and Azaleas! and Glory!

            Lakes! and Swans! and Love!

            Oranges! and Lightning! and Pain!

                                    We are the Bluebird dawning

How powerful they have made us, Prometheus!

                        They have indeed made us gods

We soar so high above them—

            how small their world appears!

            Let them have Happiness—

Glory belongs to us!

Look, Prometheus!

            Far below!

There lies the rotting corpse

            of our great eternal love—

its stench far sweeter

than anything the bourgeois hordes

are capable of imagining!

*

Look! The thunderclouds awake!

Our muses near

high upon the rumbling nimbus

Inspire! Fire! Desire!

Let us now raise our holy hymn—

A Litany of All the Saints of Fabulousness!

Sancti Elizabeth Taylor!

                                                Mirabilis!

Sancti Audrey Hepburn!

                                                Fabulosa!

Sancti Julie Andrews!

                                                Gloria!

Sancti Judy Garland!

                                                Mirabile!

Cher!   Madonna!

Donna!                        Diana!

                                                                        Olivia!

MONROE!!!!                         

Sancti Grace Kelly!

                                                Domina! Domina! Domina!

Amazing Grace!         Grace Abounding!

Queen of all Mercy and Fashion!

You thunder above the mundane world!

O Lady, grant us thy Fabulousness

and lead us not into boring, unstylish bourgeois respectability

but unto Glamour and Glory forever!

Amen

            And appears shining from on high

Our fairest and our brightest Muse—

She is the Form of Eternal Beauty

She is the luscious Amaranth

She glitters, loveliest of all stars

            forever unreachable

            invisible from the earth

She dwells above the rainbow’s arc

How many consecrated virgins

            aspire to her noble heights?

O Muse, darling Muse—

Sing to us now of Heaven

            of Gorgeousness upon Gorgeousness!

            of Light upon Light!

            of Beauty upon Beauty!

            of all Love’s rare and radiant joys

that we shall never see

She is the frustration of all desire

            revealing the sublime splendor

of the infinite waste

just like Olivia Newton-John singing Xanadu

            she brings us nearer Christ the Lord

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My darling Prometheus—

            Prometheus my darling—

Our paradise is lost

            Now only in Heaven found

If Heaven be at all

Our home never to be reached

                        —anywhere! anywhere!—

Across the wide burning earth

Alas! our great eternal Love—

           

The world could not contain it

It exploded into being once

            Like the miracle of Dawn

But the jealous gods stole our flame, Promethe!

            And now our Light is gone—

            Leaving the dim and desolate Universe

Even emptier than before

How we have fallen, sweet Prometheus

            as far as only angels can fall—

all the way—

            the long, long way—

from Heaven

O Prometheus—

                        I am become Poetry

like endless waves

                        beating against

your shore