UNFEATHERED INK
  • Home
  • Word Warriors Academy
    • WWA Home Page
  • Services
  • Press
    • Author Pages: >
      • Tonnisha Bolian
      • Tiffany Jackson
      • Melody Norton
  • Blogs
    • Anthropological Lens
    • Unfeathered Ink Press
    • Writing on the Wall
    • Shop Talk
  • About
  • Giving Back
  • Contact
  • Store

Athena: Alala

3/26/2020

0 Comments

 
Athena, my debut book is in its final month of the writing and editing phase. It's been really hard to let this book come to an end but time is passing and emotionally ready or not, I'm kicking it out of the nest. During the week of May 30th, I will be polishing finished works for the book and wrapping up the following:
  • Dedication
  • Introduction
  • Author Bio 
  • Glossary (mythology & history reference)​​


​
​To celebrate,

I am releasing

one poem a week

on
YouTube

& IGTV
!  

Picture

This week's featured reading is Alala, a poem full of rising, ceremony, and survival. Honoring the experience, trials, and energies that have built me. A tribute to the goddesses of war and warriors everywhere. Be wild! 

Alala: "War-cry." The female personification on the war-cry, and an attendant of Ares. Pindar mentions her as the daughter of Polemus.
​(from the Encyclopedia Mythica)


Alala by Melody Norton

Now
In the stillness of the storm
I am lost
With no tragedy to tend to
No order-given mission to accomplish
No traumatic experience to survive
No crisis to avert
No hardship to rise above
And I don’t know what to do

I am exhausted
Feeling worn
Carrying the strife of Nirrti
For I am not whole

I need
to process all that I have
experienced
suffered
endured
survived

Give aid
to the residual infections
which have not yet been remedied
So I can do as I was trained
Adapt and overcome
In a way that builds me
From my pain
From the ashes
From what remains

Write it all down
The way I walked in
Full of blind faith
that Zorya would guide me
The sun my northern star
Behind her gates
With dawn, I’d rest beneath her protection

My perseverance shining bright
Reflected in the swords of myself and others
who owe gratitude to Marishiten

As I pen this
I approach my next phase with plea
because I only know how to pray in my poetry  
and I am in desperate need
of a war-cry
As medicinal
while I’m phasing back into the world
as it was fierce
going into the field

This is the pivot point
Where Kali lay me in her arms
Whispering
Change is on the way

Lace this ceremony with magic and Northern Lights
Leading me to the lighthouse
Making my body a safe house
Echoing with the humming
of leather-bound bass
I howl with the lifeblood of the wild 
Sounds of the green hills
The hollers of my ancestors
from battles past
Worlds apart
Drenched by the salty waters
they shared
That carry sailing tributes
engulfed in flames
in honor of my passing
Mourning
the parts of me that will never return
In the hope that least my soul is revived
Allowing me another chance
in this life

I need this
I need to sing through the rage
Breath stolen by the shrieks of Agasaya
before she evolved
into Ishtar and grew to know love
Xuannu (the Mysterious Lady) knighted me with her magic
May my beloved learn the difference between how I kiss
when I am sorry, when I am in heat, and when I harbor pain

I need dances
spirted by my Roman image
Healing dances
that connect me
Body and drums
Body
between ground and sky
Healing
between sacral and crown

Record
the way I dance off beat
The way I sing in the rain
The reverberation of my voice
rumbling through the valleys
Sekhmet, lead me home
to sands that match my skin
So I can stand
along the shoreline of desert lakes
Juniper breeze in my hair

Standing in the soils
Toes curled into its cool touch
Smelling the earth
Standing beside the energies
of goddesses and creatures
Whom share the anguish
Free to bare our scars
Both those
etched into our temples
and those which silently suffocate us
from the inside

Singing in perpetual canon
Carrying each other
through the riffs
And I, a humble human vessel
Drinking the wisdom of their stories
The attributes of their narratives
So that I may find myself whole
An eclectic statue of their influence
Erected to stand in virtue
Resurrected and longing to live
Forever
Like them    

There is something powerful
about the moment
when you realize
that you are the fire
inside the belly
of the beast
The rising sword

Nerio is passing the torch
Valor lives here
In my chest

When it’s all said and done
lay me in the heavenly fields of Freyja
or send me to Valhalla
Either way I rest
among fellow warriors
Without fear or pain
Blessed by Victoria
Anointed by Bast

Blessed be
my fellow goddesses of war
for all you bestow upon me

Athena
Born for battle
Though I learned and became
so much more along the way
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Upcoming Release:
    ​Athena​

    Follow the evolution of my 1st full length poetry manuscript, Athena, book one in a five book series. Throughout my blog you can also find writing prompts, personal book club picks, and other creative inspiration.

    I invite readers to join me in building acceptance over tolerance, overcoming adversities, engaging in thoughtful communication, & sharing their experiences/views.

    Thank you!
    - Melody Norton 
     

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    February 2019
    December 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Origin Story

Schedule Consult
Contact Us
Vertical Divider

    Join the #UnfeatheredInkCommunity

Join Email List
  • Home
  • Word Warriors Academy
    • WWA Home Page
  • Services
  • Press
    • Author Pages: >
      • Tonnisha Bolian
      • Tiffany Jackson
      • Melody Norton
  • Blogs
    • Anthropological Lens
    • Unfeathered Ink Press
    • Writing on the Wall
    • Shop Talk
  • About
  • Giving Back
  • Contact
  • Store