Shared Practice I -- after Millay

Ok, so, Gabo (Gabriel Garza) had/has this art-project idea of collaborating with famous artists by imitating their style, subjects, and framing, but "re-mixing" it somehow so as to offer expansion or critique of the artists' original idea. He put it more elaborately than that. Anyways, I realized I liked the same concept in poetry, and so have been doing some "Shared Practice" poems of my own. Here it is, and, following it, in separate posts, some more. These have been done over the last 9 months.

So, here is Bluebeard

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

THIS door you might not open, and you did;

So enter now, and see for what slight thing

You are betrayed…. Here is no treasure hid,

No cauldron, no clear crystal mirroring

The sought-for truth, no heads of women slain

For greed like yours, no writhings of distress,

But only what you see…. Look yet again—

An empty room, cobwebbed and comfortless.

Yet this alone out of my life I kept

Unto myself, lest any know me quite ;

And you did so profane me when you crept

Unto the threshold of this room to-night

That I must never more behold your face.

This now is yours. I seek another place.

and here is mine:

When 'Alone' means 'Together'

after Millay's Bluebeard

You must get over yourself, sad Bluebeard!

What, what was so precious in that cold room

That you must now get up and act so weird?

Why choose the morsel when there is a boon?

For Love can't stand a secret, hiding out

Because love is light; it must rout darkness

So don't be so stunned that she went about

And found your silly nook sans your largess.

Turn back! Go back into your worthless home,

Give her the blue-prints, the keys to the door

Invite a re-model; give up your tomb

Into her hands to be made new: un-poor

It's not too late to change reclusive ways;

Homes built together are the ones that stay.