O blooming branch,

stand in your nobility

as the Sun dawns forth:

now rejoice and be glad

and deign to set us frail ones

free from evil habits

and stretch forth your hand

and lift us skyward.

Unto the ages,

       Amen

I. Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

Dawn now from the bed of lordly Tithonus arose,

So that she might bring light to immortals and mortals.

II. Athena: Shape-shifter

Male but also female by nature having sired Metis.

A glitter-formed female dragon

a lover of frenzy with splendid honor

Athena, shape-shifter.
She shot down from Olympus in the likeness of a guest friend

So she spoke and departed as a bird.

She drew near to him as Mentor, both in form and voice.

Disguised as Telemachus, she went through the town.

Taking the guise of the daughter of Dymas.

So She Spoke, and departed as a hawk.

She met him in the guise of a girl with a pitcher.

She looked like a shepherd, young and tender as a prince.

She made her body like a woman, beautiful and tall

and skilled in the shining arts.

III. Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when, at last, the third day was brought by lovely haired Dawn

At once then Dawn came, well-throned

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when, at last, the third day was brought by lovely haired Dawn

And there, asleep, we awaited Dawn, the godly

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

Thus with wailing we awaited Dawn, the godly

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

Thus with wailing we awaited Dawn, the godly

IV. Man Woman God Thing

Far-famed, fair-haired, flawless honored, with dark blue eyes, well-made wide ruling, swift-footed, beautiful ankled, glossy, queenly, steadfast in fight, queenly, feathered, of shapely shin guards

great-hearted, keen sighted, wine colored, divine among women barren, piercing voiced, divine among gods, piercing,

highborn, with dark blue eyes, tamer of horses, unwearied one, glorious

earth-shaker, good at shouting, immortal, wise, very wise, wisdom knowing grey-eyed, richly wrought, radiant, long robed, white armed, cow-eyed,

Holy, Zeus-nurtured, violet colored, silver studded, silver footed, violet dark, bronze-clad, golden, finely garlanded, mighty, mighty born eternal, god-like, god-like, equal to a god, great hearted, long haired,

war-like, mighty, deceitful minded, with lovely braids, with lovely braids, true hearted,

deep girdled, deceitful minded, flawless, pitiless, with beautiful veils, surpassingly beautiful, surpassingly beautiful, 

beautiful, beautiful, 

beautiful sweet.

V. Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when, at last, the third day was brought by lovely haired Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

So she spoke and straight away came golden throned Dawn

And there, asleep, we awaited Dawn, the godly

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

So she spoke, and straightaway came golden throned Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

VI. Athena: Who Cannot Be Spoken Of

not spoken of, well spoken of, with a great name

Athena, who cannot be spoken of.

Athena, who is spoken of well.

VII. Dawn

Now when the star rose, that most shining one, 

that one that most of all of them heralds the light of dawn, the early-born

So she spoke, and straight away came golden throned Dawn

VIII. The Hated One

I come here as one who has been hated by many

to name this child, the child of my child. I’ve been cursed by men and women

throughout the much bestowing earth, so name him after me and call him…

of many twists, of many turns, of many tricks, good at things, lion-hearted,

great of heart, sprung from Zeus, city-sacker, the shepherd of the people,

great glory of Achaea, Tricky minded, quick minded, of many thoughts,

god-like, of many wiles, glorious, always thinking, widely praised, 

of the steadfast heart, much suffering, much groaning, much enduring,

much withstanding, many minded, crafty minded, shifting dappled rainbow minded

unhappy one, wretched one, of many sorrows, ill-starred

His name, o stranger, I feel reverence to speak, even in his absence, for he loved me so, and held me in his heart.

I call him Honored One, though he is far away.

IX. Dawn

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

The two of them lay down to sleep, not for a long time, but for a little while, 

for swiftly Dawn came, well-throned

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

There he lay down, and Dawn, the godly, he awaited.

And when there appeared the early-born rose-fingered Dawn

So she spoke, and straight away came golden-throned Dawn

Nor shall the early born one slip past you when she comes from the streams of the Ocean, golden throned!

X. Athena: War Trumpet

Delighting in arms, goading mortals souls with frenzy, athletic maiden, shudder-making spirit you have

Athena: War Trumpet.

Then she lifted her mortal killing aegis, and the minds of the suitors were blazing with panic,

and they fled through the hall like a herd of cattle that the gadfly drives to frenzy in the season of spring,

when the long days come, and like vultures, who with crooked beaks and talons streak from the mountains

while the smaller birds who cower just beneath the clouds fling themselves away, but the vultures 

leap on them and kill them and there is no escape, and men watch and rejoice in the violence of their slaughter

So did she set upon the suitors, and thrash them reeling down the hall, and there rose awful groans as their

skulls were cracked, and the whole floor was seething with blood.

XI. Dawn

And now, to them weeping, there would have appeared rose-fingered Dawn

but the goddess had other plans: She stayed the long night at the farthest end of its course, and held back at the ocean the golden throned one

And then she roused from the ocean the golden throned, early-born one so that to us she might bring light.

I. Clouds (The Tempest)

And then in dreaming the clouds open’d
the clouds I thought would open up
and show riches ready to drop upon me
that when I waked I cried to dream again.

II. The Storm (King Lear)

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, Blow!

You cataracts and hurricanes, spout

Till you have drench’d our steeple drown’d the cocks. 

You sulfurous and thought-executing fires,

Vaunt couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts

Singe my white head! And thou all-shaking thunder,

Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world.

Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once

that makes ingrateful man.

III.      Boundless (Romeo and Juliet)

and yet I wish for the thing I have.

My bounty is as boundless as the sea,

My love as deep. The more I give to thee,

The more I have, for both are infinite

IV. An Oyster (Much Ado About Nothing)

I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much

another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors

to love, will, after he hath laughed at such

shallow follies in others, become the argument of

his own scorn by falling in love— and such a man is

Claudio. I have known when there was no music

with him but the drum and the fife, and now had he

rather hear the tabor and the pipe; I have known

when he would have walked ten mile afoot to see a

good armor, and now will he lie ten nights awake

carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont

to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest

man and a soldier, and now is he turned orthography;

his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so

many strange dishes. May I be so converted and see

with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not. I will not

be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster.

V. Great Sea of Joys (Pericles)

Strike Me honor’d sir!

Give me a gash, put me to present pain,

lest this great sea of joys rushing upon me

O’erbear the shores of my mortality

And drown me with their sweetness.— O come hither,

thou that begets him that did thee beget,

thou that wast born at sea, buried at Tarsus,

And found at sea again!— O, Helicanus,

Down on thy knees! Thank the holy gods as loud

As thunder threatens us. 

This is my lost Marina

VI. Tomorrow (Macbeth

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

to the last syllable of recorded time;

and all our yesterdays have lighted fools

the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

and then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing.

VII. Illusions I Recall (Both Sides Now)

. . . it’s illusions I recall. I really don’t know…. At all.

You know they say that in 1842, on a plantation, in Alabama,

the enslaved peoples unearthed a huge skeleton, the bones

of a giant whale. A leviathan from the time that all the earth

was covered in water, from the Andes to the Himalayas, and

even Alabama was deep down under. And the enslaved peoples

look to the huge bones, and they said

These must be the bones of a fallen angel

These must be the bones of a fallen angel

Out on the ocean, out on the water

we look for signs of him

He looks like a giant snow hill, a fountain,

then he disappears he’s a speck on the horizon.

We see him only in parts. A flash of his tail

his beating heart, he’s in pieces and parts.

It’s easier for a camel to slide through the eye of a needle

than to find a whale who hides at the bottom of the ocean.

It’s easier to sail around the world in a coffee cup

than to see a whale when he comes rising up.

We see him only in parts. A fountain, fins,

a speck on the horizon, giant teeth an open mouth.

lookout, lookout, lookout, lookout!

So hit an elephant with a dart and he just reaches around

and he pulls it out, with his trunk

Ah, but hit a whale in the heart and the whole ocean

turns red, it turns red!

We see him only in parts. The flash of a tail,

his beating heart, he’s in pieces and parts.

so get hit in your head and there may be a few things

You can’t recall at all

but get hit in your heart, and you’re in pieces and parts.

Pieces and parts.