Penelope, by Cora Charis

Penelope

by Cora Charis

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1.	Ἴλιον: I 00:47	lyrics
Dark am I, yet lovely. Dark am I, yet lovely. Maybe the world is too much with us, too much with us. I always feel as if the world were too much with me—trapped between earth and sky, between you and me (that endless, born-again gap between you and me). Like gas stations, gas stations—the way it hits me the most at gas stations: Numbers go up as Jericho falls down, the attendant huddled in his convenience, while I, I say a prayer for all of the souls out there, trapped between earth and sky, framed in such unfitting recognition.
2.	Ἴλιον: II 00:37	lyrics
It’s because overdoses are accidental while being meant-to-be. You with your hand full of pills, your fist full of powder; you with your soul full of agony, pure agony, and me with my unwanted Ecstasy, useless first-aid desires—I wish we could meet again, outside the club, inside our insecurities. We could know and only know, never doubt despite the waste. We could have a home and a story, a night with a joy that comes through the mourning.
3.	Ἴλιον: III 00:51	lyrics
I loved you more, you know. I understood you—more. That blurred sexuality, undone innocence looks easy, so easy to me. We made love by a slot machine, near a cotton candy booth (or did we?). You left early—sneaked out in the morning, didn’t bother with an excuse (he left early—skipped class that I was born into too late with no second glance at the bruised abuse). I can see you, now—that head of golden hair, lazy eye. I can see us still—making love for an eternity, forever lost in landlocked embraces. We won’t have to cum anymore; we’ll already be there. We won’t have to make love, really; it’ll already be made.
4.	Ἴλιον: IV 00:49	lyrics
And I know; I know what it is that I know: Seven splendours, each one gone; a hundred dark-eyed daughters, five hundred dreaded dawns (so many stones of execrations, so many years, each so long). He prophesied seven years of drought and seven feasts of famine (he prophesied seven lives of love and seven deaths to reexamine). And I know, and I know what it is that I know: twenty incantations, a million different songs; fifty born libations, one thousand courtesans. And so I know; I know what it is that I know: Although you go weeping and in sorrow, with sighing and in pain, still you must go.

about

Eight years in the making, this piece of epic poetry is composed of nine books, each containing a set of nine poems. Created as the sequel to "The Odyssey," the theme and language is that of the main female character, Penelope, put into modern context. She is raw, honest and innately beautiful, mixing meaning and metaphor--her own identity with that of her lover's as well as that of her "Lord."

Penelope was composed during four years of travel and four years of subsequent bedrest and is dedicated in its entirety to Flo.

credits

released January 1, 2014

Photography/ album art by Kristen Rebecca Photography

license

about

Cora Charis

CORA CHARIS grew up in the midwest of the United States, the second of nine children. Having graduated high school at the age of sixteen, she attended Acadia University in Nova Scotia, Canada, where she studied Classical Linguistics and English Literature. She lives in Arizona. ... more