Sappho Says: A Prompt

Some say the Muses are nine: how careless!

Look, there's Sappho too, from Lesbos, the tenth.

--Anthologia Palatina, Plato

Sappho in Roman fresco from Regio VI in Pompeii. Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples).

            Sappho was a Greek musician and poet born in approximately 620 BCE. While Sappho was said to have composed nine books of poetry, only one complete poem has survived to modernity. All that remains of her other works are fragments: single words from the ends of lines, a brief whisper of an image.  

            This week let Sappho be your muse. Write the poem missing from these enjambments:

[] blame

[]swollen

[]you take your fill. For [] my thinking

[]not thus

[]is arranged

[]nor

all night long [] I am aware

[] of evil doing

[]

[]other

[]minds

[]blessed ones

            Or use one of these fragments as a seed for your work, as the stone plunging into the water—let your art ripple out from it:

you came and I was crazy for you

and you cooled my mind that burnt with longing

I would not think to touch the sky with two arms

neither for me honey nor the honey bee  

Feel free to post or link your work in the comments.

All translations of Sappho’s fragments were taken from one of my favorite books, If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson, 2002.