{"id":76,"date":"2010-11-19T18:25:03","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:25:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=76"},"modified":"2010-11-19T18:25:03","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:25:03","slug":"patricia-storace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/76\/poems\/patricia-storace\/","title":{"rendered":"Patricia Storace"},"content":{"rendered":"

PAGAN LITANY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unknown gods we drove away, we invoke you.
\nYou who are not named, but are not nameless,
\nPardon our arrogance. Return to us.
\nLet the myriad altars we destroyed surge up again,
\nOcean of gods, and lave the world with generous prayer,
\nRestore, we beseech you, your manifold blessings.<\/p>\n

Let no one be called infidel unless
\nHe seeks to harm another.
\nLet the curse of idolater be reserved
\nOnly for the self-righteous.
\nWhose tyrannous faith brings war,
\nAnd permits any cruelty
\nIn the service of its self-deity.
\nLet the charge of blasphemy fall
\nOnly on the self-anointed,
\nVentriloquists of divinities.
\nOnce again, let no god be abominated,
\nDeclared a devil by another’s partisans,
\nLet none be despised, but all honored.<\/p>\n

Terminus, god of border markers, return from Rome,
\nTeach us again our limits. Mark off the finite from the infinite,
\nLet no man claim the deaths he causes are the will of God,
\nThat the bodies at his feet are the butcheries of angels.
\nShow the women their own deaths in the tortures they inflict—
\nTheir children will tremble at the sight of them,
\nAnd drown on their own mothers’ milk.
\nAbattur, come with your scales from Persia;
\nWe need your judgment.
\nAnat of Canaan, goddess of war, wear your ostrich feather crown;
\nYou alone knew the purpose of war, not to destroy other creatures,
\nEach born as it is, already in its shroud—
\nBut to fight death.
\nPattini, Lady born of a heavenly mango, share with the starving
\nYour miraculous rice, protect us from epidemics,
\nBoth those we endure, and those we devise.<\/p>\n

O Ptah, who created us in Egypt on a potter’s wheel,
\nMake us serviceable and lovely.
\nNu-gua, who made us in China of yellow clay,
\nDo not shatter us.
\nHuracan, who made us in America of cornmeal,
\nYou who live simultaneously in eternity and time,
\nWatch over us in heaven,
\nWatch over us on earth,
\nWatch over us in hell.
\nQuat, who made us on his island out of boredom,
\nInspire us to give our stories better endings.
\nImrat, who fashioned us in India of butter,
\nAnd in the richness of divinity made other gods,
\nRemind us that it is not our limitations that are sacred.
\nLowalangi, great guardian from Indonesia,
\nYou speak of us tenderly as your pigs,
\nAnd teach us we are incapable of worship,
\nUntil we see ourselves a thousand ways.<\/p>\n

Nanse, Our Lady of Sumeria, Queen of Divination,
\nTell us the awful truth—that this world is a faithful record
\nAnd clear interpretation of our dreams.
\nOmeteotl, glorious Aztec, born of your own thought,
\nKeep us unfinished ones ever-thinking,
\nRevealed always by what we have caused to exist.<\/p>\n

Patrons and Givers of Gifts, we summon you.
\nJuturna of the springs and wells,
\nQuench our thirst.
\nEgres, who first gave turnips to the Finns,
\nIf we scorn your gift,
\nWe repudiate the world.
\nDua, god of daily grooming,
\nReviver of mankind,
\nPatron of perfume and the sacred bath,
\nIt is your vocation also to wake the dead,
\nYour therapy through which they remember
\nHow to use their limbs. Remind us of the
\nResurrections hidden in our days,
\nCelestial incarnate in quotidian.
\nCao Guo-Jiu, Patron of actors,
\nOf all that is both true and false,
\nSustain us in belief,
\nProtect us with doubt.
\nHintubuhet, Androgyne,
\nMaker of Marriage,
\nButterfly of both sexes,
\nBless those who seek devoted love.
\nTenenit, refresh us with the golden beer
\nBrewed first in your sky-blue lapis vat.
\nMarunogere, Maker of genitals,
\nThank you.
\nArhats, enlightened ones,
\nLend us your heavenly eyes,
\nSo we might glimpse other worlds,
\nRead other scriptures, so those who
\nKnow nothing of the earth they inhabit
\nWill not dare again to speak to us of heaven.
\nReturn to us, Pantheon,
\nAbundant in divinity,
\nWithout you, we cannot be human.<\/p>\n

Winged Nan, from the heaven of dead children,
\nWe petition you: have mercy on us.
\nRan of Scandinavia, goddess of the drowned,
\nLift the breathless gently in your nets,
\nPray for us.
\nFreya, weep for us your golden tears.
\nMayan Ixtab, Goddess of Suicides,
\nShow those in torment your inhuman mercy;
\nWith compassion beyond blessing,
\nReceive them in your Paradise.
\nGreek Eirene,
\nWhose liturgies were never stained with blood,
\nGrant us peace.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PAGAN LITANY Unknown gods we drove away, we invoke you. You who are not named, but are not nameless, Pardon our arrogance. Return to us. Let the myriad altars we destroyed surge up again, Ocean of gods, and lave the world with generous prayer, Restore, we beseech you, your manifold blessings. Let no one be […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76\/revisions\/77"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}