Here We Are Again: Covered In Glass, Blood Stained Blacktop. This Makes Sense. The Constant Collision

“Here we are again: covered in glass, blood stained blacktop. This makes sense. The constant collision of us. In bones, mouths, skin. We are always pulling in opposite directions but wind up in the same bed. You can call this chemistry, or even symmetry, but we never quite know what it is exactly we’re trying to mimic. All I know is that I can’t keep pulling glass out of my palm. Every time you try to hold my hand, it gets lodged in deeper. You’re so deep under my skin at this point that I don’t think I’ll ever get you all the way out. I don’t know that I’d ever call this love, but I don’t know a better word for this kind of orbit. Some days I think I forget how to breathe until you say my name. Here we are again: glass in my hair, blood on your hands. I’ll still get back up and brush off my knees. You’ll get back in the car and find your sunset. We’ll meet up and do it all over again tomorrow night.”

— I’m Only Honest with You in My Dreams, Angelea Lowes  (via angelealowes)

Meanings behind Chain of Iron chapter titles (part II, Ch16-29)

16. Dark Breaks to Dawn

Likely from another Dante Gabriel Rossetti poem, “Found”, a companion to his painting of the same name. It was published in 1881 in his volume Ballads and Sonnets.

“There is a budding morrow in midnight:”— So sang our Keats, our English nightingale. And here, as lamps across the bridge turn pale In London’s smokeless resurrection-light, Dark breaks to dawn. But o'er the deadly blight Of Love deflowered and sorrow of none avail, Which makes this man gasp and this woman quail, Can day from darkness ever again take flight?

17. Prophet of Evil

In “The Raven”, Edgar Allen Poe calls the raven a “Prophet” and a “thing of evil”.

In the Iliad, Cachas the seer/prophet is called a “Prophet/seer of evil”:

To Calchas first of all he spoke, and his look threatened evil: “Prophet of evil, never yet have you spoken to me a pleasant thing; ever is evil dear to your heart to prophesy, but a word of good you have never yet spoken, nor brought to pass. […]”

I don’t think either of these two are the reference used here though.

18. Goblin Market

This title is clearly from the poem “Goblin Market” written by Christina Rossetti in 1859, a tale of two sisters tempted by magical and dangerous fruit sold by goblins. According to some analyses, the poem might read as an allegory of addiction and recovery. (This poem has also been quoted in chapter 6 of CA)

19. Thine Own Palace

From one of John Donne’s verse letters to Sir Henry Wotton beginning “Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls”:

“Be then thine own home, and in thyself dwell; Inn anywhere; continuance maketh hell. And seeing the snail which everywhere doth roam, Carrying his own house still, still is at home, Follow (for he is easy paced) this snail, Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail.”

20. Equal Temper

From the poem “Ulysses” written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in 1833.

Though much is taken, much abides; and though We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are, One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

21. Hell’s Own Track

From another Christina Rossetti poem, “Amor Mundi”, published in 1865.

“Turn again, O my sweetest,—turn again, false and fleetest:  This beaten way thou beatest I fear is hell’s own track.” “Nay, too steep for hill-mounting; nay, too late for cost-counting:  This downhill path is easy, but there’s no turning back.”

22. Heart of Iron

Perhaps from “The Belfry of Bruges” (1866) by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

At my feet the city slumbered.  From its chimneys, here and there, Wreaths of snow-white smoke, ascending, vanished, ghost-like, into air.

Not a sound rose from the city at that early morning hour, But I heard a heart of iron beating in the ancient tower.

23. Silken Thread

Possibly from the poem attributed under its first line “O Lady, leave thy silken thread” by Thomas Hood.

O lady, leave thy silken thread And flowery tapestrie: There’s living roses on the bush, And blossoms on the tree; Stoop where thou wilt, thy careless hand Some random bud will meet; Thou canst not tread, but thou wilt find The daisy at thy feet.

24. He Shall Rise

This is either a biblical passage, or from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Kraken”, first published in 1830.

There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

25. Archangel Ruined

Finally we have Cassie’s obligatory Paradise Lost reference in every book!

[…] He, above the rest In shape and gesture proudly eminent,⁠ Stood like a tower; his form had yet not lost All her original brightness, nor appeared Less than Archangel ruined, and the excess Of glory obscured. […]

- Paradise Lost, Book I (1674), John Milton

26. Older Than Gods

The only thing I can find for the exact phrase “older than gods” is something from the play The Birds by Aristophanes, performed 414 BCE, in which characters argue that if birds are older than earth and therefore “older than gods”, then the birds are the heirs of the world, for the oldest always inherits. Somehow I don’t. Think that’s the reference used here ajskfkd.

Then, there’s a line that goes “older than all ye gods” in Algernon Charles Swinburne’s poem, “Hymn to Proserpine (After the Proclamation in Rome of the Christian Faith)”:

Will ye bridle the deep sea with reins, will ye chasten the high sea with rods?/Will ye take her to chain her with chains, who is older than all ye Gods?

27. Wake With Wings

From another poem relating to Prosepine (which is one of the Latin names for Persephone) “The Garden of Proserpine” (1866) by Algernon Charles Swinburne.

Though one were strong as seven, He too with death shall dwell, Nor wake with wings in heaven, Nor weep for pains in hell; Though one were fair as roses, His beauty clouds and closes; And well though love reposes, In the end it is not well.

28. No Wise Man

Possibly from the famous quote, written by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) in essay: “No wise man ever wished to be younger.” But I doubt it, considering all the other references are of poems and verse.

29. A Broken Mirror

Possibly from poem XXXIII in the long narrative poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” by Lord Byron, published between 1812-1818. The wikipedia description has it as: “it describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man, who is disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry and looks for distraction in foreign lands.”

Even as a broken mirror, which the glass In every fragment multiplies; and makes A thousand images of one that was, The same, and still the more, the more it breaks; And thus the heart will do which not forsakes, Living in shatter’d guise, and still, and cold, And bloodless, with its sleepless sorrow aches, Yet withers on till all without is old, Showing no visible sign, for such things are untold.

Part 1 (chapters 1-15) here.

coyote the trickster? and I love your writing btw, it's beautiful:)

i would give you all the fire / in the world, if i could. every flame and ash / if you asked, and i would burn myself / to the ground for you.

compliment: interesting url, makes me think of magnus from tmi

following: not yet, sorry

no more

50 DAYS OF TOG → 8/8 Books: Kingdom of Ash

Remember that we have something to fight for, and it will always triumph.

i. Burn: sweet-tongued freedom sang in his ears, a siren of the wind and water. A symphony of delirium clawing against his skull begging, pleading to kiss Apollo and feel what it means to become a mythic mortal - a boy that danced with a god (and did not see his feathers falling to the water) ii. To ashes: until cruel lips blazed like a match in flames, fire hissing down his throat. Its a crime against oneself to fall in love with a god and to dismiss the warnings that a god’s love is damnation masquerading as an angel. What must it have felt like, boy, when you ripped his mask off and saw a god that was worshiped in burning flesh and poetry written in blood? iii. And rise: as you turned to ash, did you hear his laughter daring you to beg for salvation? Is that why when your remnants hit the water, they stayed afloat molding you back together until the ocean of ash between your lips morphed into a forest of fire - a molten beast hungry for heartless gods that will soon discover what it truly is to be loved by a monster.

— When a god creates a god-eater | Mythology | Ara Kay