Shawn L. Bird

A little nod to writer Diana Gabaldon and the scene in “Virgins” between Jamie and Ian (see the post a couple of days ago) which suddenly seem relevant!

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They think

the words get in their heads and drive them mad

Those poetesses

let passionate words escape

and wind around the unsuspecting.

Mad poetesses:

bursting flowers

buzzing bees

desires dripping with rhyme and metaphor

What fornicating do they get up to?

It can’t just be words that fill them.

Can it?

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Here’s the scene from “Virgins” referenced:

“I thought ye’d be up to your ears in whores and poetesses in Paris.”

“Poetesses?” Jamie was beginning to sound amused. “What makes ye think women write poetry? Or that a woman that writes poetry would be wanton?”

“Well, o’ course they are. Everybody kens that. The words get into their heads and drive them mad, and they go looking for the first man who—”

“Ye’ve bedded a poetess?” Jamie’s fist struck him lightly in the middle of the chest. “Does your mam ken that?”

“Dinna be telling my mam anything about poetesses,” Ian said firmly. “No, but Big Georges did, and he told everyone about her. A woman he met in Marseilles. He has a book of her poetry, and read some out.”

“Any good?”

“How would I ken? There was a good bit o’ swooning and swellin’ and bursting goin’ on, but it seemed to be to do wi’ flowers, mostly. There was a good wee bit about a bumblebee, though, doin’ the business wi’ a sunflower. Pokin’ it, I mean. With its snout.”

There was a momentary silence as Jamie absorbed the mental picture.

“Maybe it sounds better in French,” he said.

Diana Gabaldon “Virgins” in Dangerous Women George R R Martin, Gardner Dozois (eds)