HEROINES’ LETTERS:
     The Altar

Kathleen Gilbert: a homophonic translation of George Herbert

A   spoken   halter,  cord,  thighs  serving  tears,
 Traded apart  and  demented  with   fears;
   Woozy arts carve thighs banded shame;
   Go beserk, you fool, wrath much in vain.

           Apart                  zone
           Touch    the      moan 
           Ask        not        gut
          Thigh  coward    much
          Bear  tore these  arts
          Oft      far      apart
          Meat    the      same
          A phase        a game;
   Drat     my    dance  to  all may   cease
   We  moan   to  raise  freedom     feast
Holy   thighs   messed   sacked   rice   divine
Hand     hanked   the   halter    hoopy    wine

 


Award winning poet Kathleen Gilbert received an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State in 2013, after retiring from a career in public transportation. She has been interested in the Classics since taking Latin in high school and at the University of Rochester studying  with N.O. Brown. Her work has been published in Transfer, The Best of the Steel Toe Review and online at Swampwriting. Her first book, Just Us Chickens, is available at Amazon.