Poetry Thursday: Eve and Medusa

I love the optional prompt for Poetry Thursday this week - love it! But I didn't do it. The idea that Liz Elayne and Lynn had was for each participant to choose one line of a poem written by a fellow-participant and use that line as a jumping off point to write an original poem of his or her own. The thing is, I'm only newly discovering an appreciation of poetry written by others, never mind writing it myself. (I figure I can't count the smart-aleck limericks and haiku things I've been doing for years. Heh.) I'm intrigued by the idea of writing poetry, and no doubt in the coming months I'll find the courage to inflict some horrid newbie original poetry on you all (sorry in advance!) but I don't want to use a line from someone else's GOOD poem to start it off. It'd be like telling someone you want to make their life story into a movie, and they'd have visions of this fabulous, artistic creation with Meryl Streep, only to tune in and find Anna Nicole Smith lurching across the screen. NOT a pretty picture. So I'm going to file this prompt away in the back of my mind to possibly revisit in the future and share something else this week instead. The poem I've chosen to share this week is a bit off-beat, which is part of why I love it. I find it fascinating to think of a meeting between Eve and Medusa and to contemplate the idea that Eve might find Medusa someone to be admired rather than feared - that she might see Medusa's curse as a source of power...power she herself feels she lacks. Hhhmmm... "Eve Meets Medusa" Medusa. Sit down. Take the weight off your snakes. We have a lot in common. Snakes, I mean. Tell me, can you really turn men to stone with a look? Do you think, if I had a perm --- maybe not. Don't you think Perseus was a bit of a coward? not even to look you in the face you were beautiful when you were a moon goddess, before Athene changed your looks through jealousy I can't see what's wrong with making love in a temple, even if it was her temple it's a good mask; you must feel safe and loving behind it you must feel very powerful tell me, what conditioner do you use? ~~~Michelene Wandor "Eve Meets Medusa" PS...Did y'all see that poetry was mentioned in yesterday's Garfield strip? I thought it was funny! PPS...A couple of people have asked about the image above. It's a digital collage I did using Photoshop Elements. I did an image search for sculptures meant to represent Eve and Medusa, chose two of my favorites, and then I used small portions of them and messed with them - changing size, color, texture, in one case flipping the image to look the other way, all in an effort to make it look like they were inhabiting the same world - the same frame. I don't think I was entirely successful in that, but pretty close. Then of course I added the other things, like the light and the background and frames. So basically the image is my idea of a photo of how a sculptor might have represented the meeting between Eve and Medusa.