Tuesday, September 1, 2015

The Poet Laureate of MOMCOM - 5


Venus Anadyomene

As from a green zinc coffin, a woman’s
Head with brown hair heavily pomaded
Emerges slowly and stupidly from an old bathtub,
With bald patches rather badly hidden;

Then the fat gray neck, broad shoulder-blades
Sticking out; a short back which curves in and bulges;
Then the roundness of the buttocks seems to take off;
The fat under the skin appears in slabs:

Strangely horrible; you notice especially
Odd details you’d have to see with a magnifying glass…

The buttocks bear two engraved words: CLARA VENUS;
—And that whole body moves and extends its broad rump
Hideously beautiful with an ulcer on the anus.

by Rimbaud

Commentary: The link to "Why the U.S. is No. 1 -- in mass shootings" in the last 4 words of Rimbaud's famous poem ("ulcer on the anus.") is an inference that the poem can be seen as one about the social mechanisms that breed violence in the form of mass murder of human and other species.

An ulcer on any society.

That "CLARA VENUS" (meaning "famous Venus") is engraved not written, along with that "green zinc coffin" reference in the first sentence, could also mean that the poem refers to a bronze sculpture (or that the oceans are becoming a coffin).

The poem could also be about a statue of Venus (a.k.a. Aphrodite) who was born of the sea as an adult, not an infant.

"Venus Anadyomene" means "Venus Rising From the Sea" which fits with today's oceans that are polluted to the point of bringing forth ulcerated creatures.

Most sea birds have plastic in their stomach (90% of sea birds eat plastic).

Whales and other ocean species are imperilled (Since May, 30 whales have died off the Alaskan coast. Scientists are racing to find out why).

Excess acidity causes ulcerated lesions on many sea creatures.

Our environmental policies are indeed ugly because of what they allow to be done to the ocean (New Continent Found - Garbage Gyre II).

The lesson is that a Venus or Aphrodite born of today's oceans would not be the perfect love goddess of yesteryear.

And finally, the Obama Administration has allowed an ulcer in the form of a Shell drilling rig in the Chukchi Sea off the Alaska Coast.

More fossil fuel use means more ulcers on the Earth, so why also "drill baby drill" off the Atlantic Coast (You Are Here - 5)?

Obama mentions being serious about climate change, but on some issues he is as seriously wrong as an ulcer (Barry & Oil-Qaeda vs Arctic Wilderness, 2).

The previous post in this series is here.

Seduction by Oil-Qaeda:


  1. "The top executives at the largest publicly held fossil fuel companies in the United States have made nearly $6 billion in the last five years -- enough to double the U.S. commitment to addressing climate change abroad." (link)