MUSE 10.

Old Boeotia gave us nine Muses,

to inspire story, science, and art.

But the tenth Muse is Pain

and no one talks about the gain

that springs forth from a broken heart,

after the one essential ingredient

has been mixed

in with ambition and ability

and stirred around

with anxiety and fragility.

That’s right. Muse 10 is Pain…

and while Odysseus voyaged

she gave away his wife,

and before Achilles ran with he moon

she slayed Patroclus with a knife.

While Oedipus the King was blind

she gave the one-eyed prophet sight

all to orchestrate the kind of sheer misery

that could give poets their sacred right.

She lives on; past hero and Homeric verse

to slide Edger Allen another drink at the bar

and remind him inevitable death is near

and to send thoughts to push Emily

to a heart that beats blood and fear.

Oh and she took Vincent’s ear,

because his art required worldly scorn—

she watched them all suffer

so that starry nights might be born.

But don’t think she ever held compassion

watching tragedy overtake their passion—

that is up to the artist

to sense the presence of the goddess,

the never-named tenth Muse and use

her cruelties as clay,

her addictions as paint

her wicked ways as words on a page

and make beauty out of the rage.

Hey Text and Rocker!

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WARRIOR: A TEXT AND ROCK POETRY COLLECTION ON ART. HEART. AND THE WARRIOR ETHOS.

Call your muse back down the mountain.

—Swift-Footed Markilles