Sylph Item Type Thesis Authors Moran, Christopher Cory Download date 29/09/2021 23:08:38 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/11122/4466 SYLPH By Christopher Moran Richard Can, Chair, Department of English APPROVED: SYLPH A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of the University of Alaska Fairbanks in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF FINE ARTS By Christopher Moran, B.A. Fairbanks, Alaska December 2013 v ABSTRACT Sylph is a collection of poems that explores our relationship with mythology. It is interested in the similarity between identity and mythology, and the constant reinvention that both experience. It is interested in finding where myths intersects with individuals, societies, places, and other myths. The book attempts to create a panorama of landscapes both urban and rural, of figures ranging from alchemical spirits, animals from folklore, and gods of Greek, Egyptian, and many other descents. The poems frequently employ dramatic monologue in order to offer a voice to mythical figures. They focus primarily on content and imagery, favoring metaphor and simile. Sylph does not attempt to represent the entire body of mythology, but rather different figures that have intersected in a multicultural setting. Sylph regards both the reader and the mythical figures not as artifacts, but as beings that are in a process of continual growth and experience. vi Table of Contents Page Signature Page..............................................................................................i Title Page....................................................................................................iii Abstract........................................................................................................v Table of Contents........................................................................................vi Acknowledgments......................................................................................ix I....................................................................................................................1 Written in Sand............................................................................................2 Little Gods...................................................................................................3 Terra.............................................................................................................4 Sleepwalking in the Other City....................................................................5 Pegasus in Flight..........................................................................................7 Hulse-Taylor................................................................................................9 Memory of Fire..........................................................................................10 Bastet in the Bathhouse..............................................................................11 Clotho's Apprentice....................................................................................12 One Afternoon with a Death God..............................................................14 They Came in Boats...................................................................................18 II.................................................................................................................21 Becoming the Birds I. Becoming...............................................................22 II. Osprey...................................................................................................23 III. Turtle Dove..........................................................................................24 IV. Shrike...................................................................................................25 V. Peacock..................................................................................................26 vii Page VI. Loon.....................................................................................................27 VII. Swan...................................................................................................28 VIII. Great Horned Owl............................................................................29 IX. Falcon..................................................................................................30 X. Cardinal.................................................................................................31 XI. Bowerbird............................................................................................32 XII. Sparrow..............................................................................................33 XIII. Peahen...............................................................................................34 XIV. Barn Owl...........................................................................................35 XV. Raven..................................................................................................36 III................................................................................................................37 The Phoenix...............................................................................................38 The Moon in Glass.....................................................................................42 Ravenkind..................................................................................................44 Cartography................................................................................................46 Five Stories about a Fox............................................................................47 The Labyrinth.............................................................................................49 In the Jungle...............................................................................................51 Unicorn......................................................................................................52 St. George's St............................................................................................54 Undine Lingers...........................................................................................56 Apology to Anansi.....................................................................................57 Crematorium..............................................................................................58 His Last Words...........................................................................................59 viii Page IV................................................................................................................61 Sylph..........................................................................................................62 Stories Never Told.....................................................................................64 The Fox Woman.........................................................................................66 The Guarded Lament.................................................................................67 Embalming.................................................................................................68 Salamander.................................................................................................70 Shadow.......................................................................................................73 Batspeak.....................................................................................................74 Procession at Twilight................................................................................75 Hulse-Taylor: Inspiral................................................................................77 Fingerprints................................................................................................78 ix Acknowledgments This book would not exist without the education and guidance of my friends and mentors, Derick Burleson, Sean Hill, Amber Thomas—all of the faculty at the University of Alaska Fairbanks as well as fellow students with whom I've had the pleasure of studying. Thanks also to The Smoking Poet for publishing “Bastet in the Bathhouse” in its Poetry from Alaska series. 1 I. 2 Written in Sand A man could once walk through a desert without writing a book about it. There is nothing for him to do there but live and let the dunes learn the difference between man and mirage. The scorpion cools its armor in his shadow, the snake warms her skin by his bedroll, a mist of eyes guards the coals. His body is a gentler sun, but this too is a lie. When he awakens they will all burn together. We begged him for his story. He left only a map of where the water was sweet and marked ridges where roads wouldn't suffice. A boy chased him to the edge of the sand and the man said: “the story is a mirage, the one crossing your imagination is a stranger to you and me, and you will always forget him. My footprints are enough for the desert, who will swallow and hold them forever in its belly.” 3 Little Gods I remember darkened panes, water color faces that said, “you are disturbing the peace of this place. Go.” It's all about vision. It's all about revision. I died up north and disembarked, put new feet on new pavement, my rebirth a ritual I repeat at sunrise. So who stood there next to me with a pewter jackdaw clenched in his fist? Who praised Apollo's cafe, the coffee overpriced but their grape leaves authentic, the streets of Greece alive on their tongue for a flash? I want to pry them away, the little gods. I want