Mythology is one of the deepest creative responses of humanity to the search
for universals. Each great myth is often so profound and rich in mystery as
to have not one but many possible meanings that are rediscovered and
savored at different points in life. It is likely that each human who
searches through myth is somehow elevated thereby.
Patrick is rewriting Greek myths in various forms. He published a book of poetry, HOUSE OF THE MUSE in 2005, mostly mythological in focus. With several
books devoted to Greek mythology, one of the ways he is exploring these timeless
stories is in new narrative with fictional dialogue. One brief literary
narrative is offered online here (see below) as "Endymion", a self-contained tale similar in
form to the short story genre. This tale was read aloud at the Sun Valley
Writers Conference 2005 and, in response to interest there, is now shared
MYTHS FOR ALL TIME, published in 2007 and some of the visual traditions of Greek myths in Renaissance reception in a book, RENAISSANCE VISIONS: MYTH AND ART published in 2008, plus he published a new book examining the interaction between text and image, MYTH AND ART IN EKPHRASIS, in late 2010.
He has also adapted an
unusual literary form - the palindrome poem - especially for myth. While the French poet Apollinaire wrote shaped poems, the
palindromic structure of a poetic literary unit whose words read forward and
backward is an ideal medium for the cyclical subject matter of myth. A few
of Patrick's palindrome poems - "Icarus" and "Labyrinth" - were previously
published courtesy of Martin Gardner, the former columnist of "Mathematical
Games" in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, in a journal called WORD WAYS in 1981.
Several of these new palindromic poems, written for and shared at the Sun
Valley Writers Conference 2005 (see below), are also offered here alongside some of
Patrick's previous ones. A book of Patrick's palindrome poems is also to be
published in the near future and he has another palindrome poem "Circe" published in his new 2009 book of poetry, mostly Classical and also mythological, CLOUD SHADOWS OF OLYMPUS: Collected Poems, 2006-2009.
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Featured Short
"Endymion"
Summer, 2005
(aprox 2,000 words) |
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