Persephone Waits
An Ekphrastic Terza Rima Inspired By A Beautiful Work By Justine G. Cappelli of The Chicken Legged Workshop
Introduction
This is my second piece inspired by Justine G. Cappelli's gorgeous artwork.
Rgese are Justine's words about the painting:
With Ostaraโs arrival, the world wakes up-buds bloom, the days stretch longer, and light returns. But just as spring brings renewal, it also carries the echoes of what came before. And no myth captures that balance quite like Persephoneโs.
Once the maiden of spring, taken to the underworld and bound by six pomegranate seeds, Persephone was long painted as a victim. But newer retellings shift the perspective: she chooses her fate, embraces her role as queen, and finds power in both worlds. She is life and death, warmth and shadow, a goddess of transformation and cycles.
I wanted to capture that duality in this piece. Hades, ever watchful, sits beside her, while Cerberus stands guard.
Ostara reminds us that life and death are woven together, just as Persephone teaches us that we are not bound by a single story, we are constantly growing, changing, becoming.
This is An Ekphrastic Terza Rima, a form invented by Dante Alighieri, who also gave us "Inferno", where he is guided to Hell by the poet Virgil
Here is the Chicken Legged Workshop's Facebook Page
This is their Etsy store
The music is "From The Underworld" by The Herd
Persephone Waits
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Persephone Waits Neath A Golden Moon
Three-Headed Black Cerberus Standing Guard
Hades Sitting. She Will Be His Queen Soon
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Taken To The Underworld By Her Lord
Six Pomegranate Seeds Set To Bind Her
In This Dark Place She Is Queen, Shown Regard
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The Mistress Of Life And Death, Magic Stirs
Hades Is Her King, They Rule Together
Persepehone Watches All Life's Affairs
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Queen Of The Underworld Now Forever
Cerberus Growls, Guarding Hell's Dark Entrance
Persephone Renewas Her Endeavour
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Persephone Begins Ostara's Dance
As The Land Reawakes To Thankful Chants
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About the Creator
Mike Singleton ๐ Mikeydred
A Weaver of Tales and Poetry
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More stories from Mike Singleton ๐ Mikeydred and writers in Poets and other communities.
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The lamp on Marcus's nightstand has been on for three hours. It's 11:47 PM, and he hasn't moved from the bed. The envelope sits on the dresser across the room, Sarah's handwriting still crisp on the front: Read this when you're ready. Not before. She'd left it six months ago, back when leaving still felt impossible. Back when they were still negotiating the geometry of their collapse.
By Anie Liban7 days ago in Poets
Comments (4)
Just realized that itโs a new piece. This epigraph is from Ambrosia Harrisโs Kore, and it captures my idea of Persephone perfectly. She was never anyoneโs victim. โShe wore linen dresses and flower crowns. She was loved, and she was soft. Then she was stolen. And this is the story they tell. They do not speak of her rage when she would pull rain from the clouds and the flowers beneath her feet turned black. They do not speak of how she laughed when Icarus fell from the sky in a golden plume. They do not speak of how she grew flowers because she enjoyed watching them fade and die. They do not speak of how she pounded at the gates of Hell until they opened or how she let the pomegranate juice drip from her smiling lips. Or how even Hades trembled under her gaze.โโauthor unknown
You had to know I would love this. You had me at Persephone, and the image is fantastic. Thank you for sharing this (especially since itโs probably one of your personal renaissance pieces). ๐๐๐
Love anything about music. I have 5 turntables in my house lol
You are my go to person for music and itโs history . Thanks for sharing you personal journey with music. I am sure you put all your stories together you got a very thick book. Hugs and love ๐ฅฐโฅ๏ธ