Friday, June 2, 2023

Not as bad as it once was June 4, 2013

 

 

Is the Phoenix Queen on the rise again?

This seems to fit the meaning of her latest posted poem, implying a rise of fortune, if not yet, then soon, and may well reflect her hopes for Civil Service protection and perhaps a new role she will get to play in the Hometown election.

It is not a positive poem, so much as a hopeful one, a poem rising out of the ashes of total despair, a kind of chant to herself to say, she’s been through tough time before, and has survived, and yet, suggests that this time there are clues to something better, what once smelled acrid, now smells sweet, and forgiving, suggesting that in adversity, she can find freedom.

This is another poem that on the surface seems to be positive, and perhaps in some ways it is, claiming that by accepting her role willingly she finds better treatment than in her prior engagement.

Although she may have ended up in the same place anyway, she has in her new role found a measure of freedom from concern.

While this may be a rationalization, it is also apparently true.

In the past, she has largely had to fend for herself, doing whatever is necessary for her to survive. Now, she appears to be part of a team, protected as long as she managed to do her part.

(All this is pure speculation, based on bits and pieces of things people claim about her without any direct knowledge, yet somehow, it seems to come across in this poem.

A kinder and perhaps more accurate reading might paint a slightly different picture, even though her diction hints at strong involvement, she might also be saying that she’s been forced to her knees to plea for help or pray to God (as suggested by the poem’s title) at which point she can willfully and between these pleas see beautiful things begin to flow.

At some point, the noise from “the plea, the will and the wants,” begins to fade.

She has been at this place before “Force there by dreadful circumstance,” a memory that her body recalls. But in the past, circumstances were different, more negative, and somehow this time there is a sense of forgiveness.

This time, she surrendered intentionally. In the past, she was forced there.

In the chaos of this mad world (to quote one of her songs), she has managed to escape by surrendering, and through this she somehow finds salvation.

In the craziness that does on around her, it is difficult to tell where she is, or who she is or what her plans are as the Virgin Mayor’s world teeters with the potential to collapse.

Will she rescue herself by leaping off his Titanic and onto the political ship that the Hometown election offers?

As she has proven time and time again, she is perfectly capable of reinventing herself.

The poem essentially says, things are bad, maybe as bad as they have been previously, yet somehow, in this mix, she finds a sense of hope and forgiveness – most likely self-forgiveness – and this thread gives her a sense of freedom, other similar circumstances in the past had denied her.

While I theorize that this is connected to the Virgin Mayor’s legal troubles, the poem may actually be more personal than that, and be talking about how her plans for love failed, as they have failed before, and yet she seems to have some kind of emotional safety net, so in her falling, she is saved from being crushed.

Not all is as bad as it seems or once was, and from this, our phoenix queen may indeed rise again from the ashes.



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