This was inspired by a poem on David Pitchford’s blog entitled “Swimmer” and a response written by Mother2Rah entitled “Tread Water”. I decided to take a crack at it (no pun intended) from the Kraken’s point of view. I would suggest you read their poems first before reading “Kraken”.
Before y’all say something, I am aware this is not in Chaucerian roundel style, as per my experiment for this week. You will see a post tonight, wrapping up the details of my experiment.
-Nicole
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KRAKEN
Once a woman of flesh and bone,
Now doomed to wander the seas alone
Looking for my next meal -
I steal
Creatures of every kind:
Dogs
Cattle
Fish
And even -
And especially -
Men and women
And ingest them into the deep crevice
They call a gut.
But
I was once as fair as that woman
Who I spied today, lashed to a cold rock,
Waiting to be engulfed into nothingness –
But a curse claimed my looks
And I became a monster
Long before this world began.
I swam
Towards the woman,
Who still pulling against her chains,
Her tears mixing with the cold rain,
Was still alive (I usually like my meals warm);
But before I could wrap my tentacles around her
And rejoice at finding my lunch,
She was stolen away by another,
A man whose heart was bowed toward her
By reason of her tears and chains.
Defeated, I swam away -
Sulked away -
Still hungry and
Still holding burning jealous torches in my bosom
For the beauty I once had.
Written 5/16/08
©2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
Pretty cool - I like it. Thanks for taking the other [the dark ;^)] side.
Siobhan aka mother2rah
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it.
Seriously though…thanks for reading, Siobhan.
-Nicole
I really like the correlations between the monster’s loss of humainity and the overwhelming jealousy. I came away with the feel of the kraken’s fatal flaw to be envy - which would fit the kraken into the myth somewhere between the jealous goddess and the boasting queen . . . Fascinating. I think it’s high time they came out with a remake for that movie . . . can’t believe I’m blanking on the title.
Clash of the Titans…? I saw that again on TV a couple of years ago. Oddly enough, though, when I looked for info about the Kraken on Google to get a sense of where to write from, I found that its origins are not well known, it’s a recent addition to the story and from what I understand doesn’t originate with the Greeks necessarily. So I kinda had to let my imagination go with this one, and I kinda took a “Medusa” viewpoint with it…the monster who was long ago a beautiful woman but changed by a curse. It’s an old story and I think it’s been told in every culture.
Anyway, thank you for dropping by and leaving your comment. Maybe we’ll have to do this again.
-Nicole