Persephone

In honor of the approaching season, I wrote these ten haikus on winter. I intended them to stand on their own as simple juxtapositions of images from nature and observations about human nature. At the same time, as a group I wanted them to represent a version of the story of Persephone and Hades. To read them in that sense, take the order as left side top to bottom followed by the right side top to bottom.

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I think that I'm not supposed to offer any words on interpretation, but I will anyway. I'm always paranoid that someday I will stumble across something I wrote and have no idea why I wrote it. Therefore, I catalog my thoughts on my work for my own sake and share it with you in case you might be interested. The Internet is useful for something, it seems.

You know the basic story: Hades steels Persephone to the underworld and while there she eats three seeds. As a result, she must stay with Hades for three months of the year and her mother is filled with such sadness that world freezes. I think this basic idea shows in the poem. What I added was the notion that Persephone was intrigued by Hades and his world, then a little repulsed, and then came to accept it. She ate those seeds and actually liked what she tasted. Upon her return to the world above, she thought of Hades with hesitancy. Then she returned to him and saw how he was different from the world of the gods above. They were known for their mischievousness and frivolity. They often did more harm than good. Hades, on the other hand, is left to do his work without the interference of the other gods. He turns out to be a conscientious administrator over the world of the dead, and a faithful companion. That is what happens in my version, anyway.