Personal Mythology: A Triumvirate
I. Persephone
I am Persephone,
Purveyor of spring sun; gifted
With life. Born, Demeter holds me.
Captivated,
Adoring the fruit of her labour,
The being of bud and bloom.
I am Persephone,
Purveyor of winter snow; cursed
By seed. Veiled, Hades holds me.
Captive,
To suffer alone the perversity
Of his vicious advances.
I am Persephone.
Perpetually damned.
II. Cassandra
I am Cassandra,
By another name. Gifted:
With Apollo’s heart upon my sleeve,
I see. The future; I am
The playground prophetess,
Foreseeing fate and fortune.
I am Cassandra,
Rejecting affection. Cursed:
The future haunts me, taunting me
With horses and handsome heroes.
All will betray, breaking
Hope and heart.
I am Cassandra.
Burdened by tomorrow.
III. Yggdrasil
I am Yggdrasil:
Ashen with knowledge.
Lonely. I stand,
supporting aching limbs,
Leaden with the weight of the world.
I am Yggdrasil:
Ashen with torment.
Harts and serpents
Ravage my bowing body, stripping my armour,
Feeding on my quaggy fibres.
I am Yggdrasil:
Ashen.
Nidhoggr feasts
At the root of my agonising Ragnarok.
(c) A. Tresidder 2009
An alien voice under a duvet of dreams. 
I like the poems but maybe the problem Magma has is that they don’t necessarily (you’re going to hate me) tell people familiar with the characters anything a bit different? They express the classical perspective on the three beautifully but its still the classical perspective.
Why the jump to Yggdrasil from Cassandra, given that they’re presented as a series?
No, I don’t hate you. And I didn’t send the poems to Magma, I just mentioned them as they had put a blog post up about asking if classical mythology fits with contemporary poetry.
The jump from Cassandra to Yggdrasil is representative of a change of perspective, a knowing rather than a ‘vision’. The poems represent the LGMD from birth (when nothing seems to be wrong) to the first onset of symptoms to after the diagnosis.
Aha! Now I get it – I completely missed the “A Personal Mythology” title somehow. Dog!
i think this poem demonstrates the tradition of instruction through delight. Mythology is the orignal fantasy and therefore has its place in explaining and interpreting such that can not through realism. Alot of people avoid it or dislike it, due to its unfamiliarity – it requires a certain indepth knowledge regarding the names, characters and assoicaitive histories etc which are attached to each one.
I wanted to comment on the structure of the poem very reminscent of a column ! well done i could see this being part of a long series
Interesting….as far as mythology goes. Not really a fan of mythology. It’s too close to ‘evil’ for me. Prefer to address the real evil….not the imagined. Bible is so full of the REAL characters of the Spiritual world.
But the peom is really nice.
Carolyn