"You must have the Devil in you to succeed in any of the arts"

-Voltaire

Inspiration for my poetry comes from many places, such as movies, literature, music and even television. But another spring of inspiration for my poetry also comes from my studies in history.

On a few occasions, I have sat to write and thought of a particular historical figure or event and just wrote a poem either based loosely around it or entirely about the figure or event. The following poems this week are a snapshot of such instances.

Disclaimer: often these poems take on a romantic notion of history for the sake of personal expression; it doesn't reflect my academic views of history. Also, it must be noted that these poems are also posted on my poetry tumblr.

1. "Danger of Dreams" - I had written this in early 2015. I was heavily inspired by Maximilien Robespierre (1758-94) and the French Revolution, a period I have always found particularly fascinating for a wide variety of reasons.

‘Blood is the price we pay for virtue, darling,’ he whispers in my ear. I repress a shudder; I am unsure if I should be in awe or terrified of his uninhibited ambitions.

I have seen the way he walks; he walks as if he were an angel, a god even. He walks as if his virtues were embracing him and guiding him to another realm: a realm that we aren’t capable of reaching.

He speaks of virtues and of ancient heroes; he spits fire at those who have burnt him; he holds the blade in his hand and the heart of the masses in the other; he is a serpent waiting to strike. But for the moment, he is our saviour; they are who we need for we have no one else now; our previous lover rots in the ground, detached from his body, separated from his glory

Here, everything ends in blood.
Here, no one is safe

Not even him, the messiah, the Incorruptible One. The one who promised us that we could be the most virtuous.

But as of empires, as of self-righteous villains: they die at the hands of the people they have slaughtered.

oh Robespierre, didn’t anyone warn you of the dangers of dreams?

2. "The Harlot and The Lamb" - loosely based on the attitude towards women's sexual liberation throughout history.

I will whisper all my sins
into your neck,
and I will get down on my knees
and take everything you say
everything you do

I will be your harlot,
I will be the one history recalls
in disdain.

I will repent
I will repeat
I will crawl serpentine
I will tear open the sky

In your holy name,
your name in which my
heart performs a symphony
a mass of universal proportions

I will be your lamb

the lamb who you will always spare

3. "I Am Free" - More of a poem about liberation from a toxic relationship; alludes to Napoleon's failed Russian Invasion in 1812

I.
My heart lays swollen and bruised on the battlefield; surely a sign to give in.

My spirit remains in your captive; you hold it by a chain.

‘How could this happen,’ I lament to myself, 'how could I let someone like you attain victory?'

II.
I was just another conquest– you were Napoleon charging through my ruined state; you reformed me, you loved me like no other.

But soon you became greedy– you feed off the power, you feed off my vulnerability. You were a snake in my Eden, and I was blindsided by hubris and Eros to pay attention to the decay.

III.
And when you took me prisoner, I felt as if a part of myself died; I felt the freedom and conviction that I always withheld fade away and I couldn’t mourn because you crashed your lips onto mine and poured all your power into me, leaving me weak and afraid.

IV.

I take my wounded heart into my hands, and I bring it forth to my lips and I forgive myself; not for you, because you have left me in ruins– you had violated my spirit and for that I cannot forget nor can I forgive.

I have to let myself forgive you, forgive you for all your transgressions, for the abuse, for the deceit. Not because you ask for it, not because you crawl on your hands and knees in serpentine fashion in a pitiful reverence

but for me.
For I deserve to live without fear and regret; for I deserve to live as the warrior I am; for I deserve to no longer be your martyr.

Because my winters will destroy you.

and like Napoleon, you have failed
you no longer can conquer me,
I am free.

4. "Revolution" - A poem about the failure of the French Revolutionaries.

‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité.’ they shout from their hypocritical mouths. Oh, how I despise their angelic faces and their devilish intentions. They speak of being our savior, they speak of secularization, they speak of heaven; all I see is hell, all I see is hell.

'Liberté, égalité, fraternité,’ they carve into our flesh; I come to despise these words, these foolish dreams in which mankind is simply incapable of achieving; there is a reason why ideas remain behind the pages of a book abused.

oh how they have failed us with their promises of a secular heaven
and instead gave us a revolution straight from the mouth of hell

5. "Dante's Lament" - inspired by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and his magnum opus the Divine Comedy- particularly Book I: Inferno.

I invoke the muses,
I invoke my lovely angel
to guide me through this treacherous path.
I kiss the mouth of hell
I surrender myself to the infernal winds;
my guide urging me I must move forward
but how can I?
when my heart is at a crossroads
and my soul is being ripped apart?

The harpies cries haunt me still;
I caress the bloody thorns.
Forgive me, father,
Forgive me, father,
For I have gone astray.

I taste the tears of the fallen angel
and I feel sorry;
For we are not so much different,
We have lost our way
and redemption is so far out of reach;
he cries because he can no longer kiss the stars
he yearns for the virtue that was violently stripped of him.

I have seen the devil- and he is just another pawn in this divine war;
for if this is true, who is the man veiled behind the universes?
This is my lament
for all of who, like myself, have gone astray;
head this cry
look within the hell in which you live
For all is not lost;
you too can re-behold the stars.