Read here the second interview about Zena's Poetry Galleries, by LadySen Laval for the Pillowtalk, Poetry & Prose Magazine:
Zena and I began part II of the tour of her awesome facility in the Witches Poetry Art Gallery. Here she expresses her Wiccan ways. Zena explained: “I was born a witch. I know things from within, from past lives, and things my mom taught me, who is a natural born witch too. As a solo witch with an eclectic interest in other beliefs as well, I feel very much attracted by the official Wiccan ways and their writing, like the Wiccan Rede. Same time I noticed that the old Wiccan way describes often things with words I rather do not use. Like in Wicca the expression often is used: harm none. It’s an important Wiccan belief, but the word ‘harm’ itself is not a positive one. Therefore, in my poem ‘The Witches' Guide, which is kind of my short modern version of the Wiccan Rede, I say: ‘wish others the best’, and ‘send out nothing but the good’. I only used positive words to describe that basic Wiccan belief, because I believe in the energy and magic of positive words. I believe everything you put your energy in, grows. This goes for actions, and also for thoughts and words, so better use positive words. I illustrated ‘The Witches’ Guide’ with an image of the moon. I also did with the poem ‘To be a Witch’. The moon is very important for witches. We believe in a Goddess of the Moon and a big influence of the Moon on all of us who live on Earth.”
She continued: “Witches believe we are all One, which is what the poem ‘To be a Witch’ says.” She has a series inspired by Wiccan sayings like ‘blessed be’ and ‘so mote it be’, where she writes what those sayings mean to her. Each poem is displayed on different colors: “For the poem ‘blessed be’ I choose brown, a very earthly color, as this saying is very basic to a witch’s way of life. I chose green for ‘so mote it be’, the color of balance, it's about accepting the flow of life, which one only can do if one is balanced, otherwise we try to control things too much, but accepting what is and what comes is what we are supposed to do. Blue for the poem ‘Blessings of the Goddess’, blue is a heavenly color, opposite to earthly, purple for ‘Bright Blessings’, purple is a spiritual color, pink for ‘Merry Meet’, the soft color for universal love. Witches often greet each other saying ‘Merry Meet’ and when they part they say ‘Merry Part and Merry Meet again’.
Her longer poem ‘The Goddess Within’ is displayed on the second floor of the gallery: “Witches believe in a God and a Goddess. For most witches the Goddess has many faces, and every Goddess represents a different aspect. The poem is illustrated with a painting of Goddess Isis by Samuel Edelstein. Isis is a very important Goddess to me.”
We traveled next to the Mystic Poetry Art Gallery:”These are my mystic poems. People who visit this gallery tell me they are uplifting to them. I'm always glad to hear that.” The most positive one is ‘Believe’. It's one of the first poems I wrote in English (her first language is Dutch) and I need to repeat it for myself often, to keep believing. One time I was a bit depressed myself and a dear second life friend said to me: I will take you to your gallery to read your own poems. It’s funny to say, but it worked. The ‘Believe’ Poem is illustrated with a Waterfall photo by Marcus Ranum.
‘Love is letting go’ (originally written in her first language), was written to cope with the loss of her real life love. Three weeks after writing it, her dad died too. She read it at his funeral which helped her a lot. Other people told her it helped them as well. That is why she translated it in English for Second Life use. She has a monumental gallery for her dad on this sim, with his photo and this poem. It's her way to honor him. She calls it the ‘Better World Heroes Gallery’, because her dad was her hero. Other people can bring a picture of their hero there too and she will frame it for them. The image that illustrates the ‘Love is letting go’ poem is a photoshopped detail from the Sistine Chapel fresco 'The Creation of Adam' from Michelangelo Buonarroti. It's the only image used in her galleries that’s officially released into the public domain. All other illustrations are from living artists, used with their permission for illustrating her poems.
The third Poem: ‘The Road’ has been rewritten several times, the poem changes as her life changes. It is called ‘Your Road’ now. The photo that illustrates the Road poem is another photo by Marcus Ranum. On the second floor of the Mystic Poetry Art Gallery there are three more poems: ‘Sea of fire’, ‘It's time’ and ‘You are the other me’. For the first two poems she used photo's of Amor Fati, one of fire for the ‘Sea of Fire’ poem and the swan one for ‘It's time’. The last poem ‘You are the other me’ was made on a special request, as a wedding gift. She used several stock photo's, of a moon and dolphins, to make the image. ‘You are the other me’ has a double meaning to Zena: a romantic meaning, like with a wedding, but also an universal meaning, as she believes we all mirror each other, and the ones we love are often very strong mirrors.
Our final destination was the BDSM Poetry Art Gallery (BDSM stand for Bondage/Discipline, Domination/Submission, Sadism/Masochism - her definition upon asking for clarification). “It’s the general term used for having kinky sex or having a kinky relationship. What is kinky to one person, is not kinky to the other one, so, every relationship or role-play is defined by the two people who are in it. The basic rule is: do what you both like as long as it is Safe, Sane and Consensual (SSC). The relationships based on BDSM are often called D/s relationships; the D stands for Dominant, the s stands for sub(missive).
This first poem is a tribute to the book/movie Histoire d'O (Story of O). In this poem ‘The Story of O’ she talks about both sides of the coin of D/s, but especially about how submission sets one free. Her sub-alt is called Odilia (named O for a reason, smiles). When people are both sub and Dominant, they are often called switches, although the definition varies. Often only people who switch roles in the same relationship, call themselves switches. The poem ‘Desire’ is signed by Odilia Oldrich, Zena’s alt who is a sub, so it is written by her too. She states “When I login Odilia, I activate another energy of me, one that likes to follow, while my main account Zena logs in with energy of one who is a leader, the one in control.” Odilia wrote this poem for her Master and dedicated it to Him. The poem ‘Pure’ is written and dedicated to one of her current subs. Her next piece ‘Free’ is dedicated to her first second life sub, who was named FreeSpirit.
Three final pieces are to find on second floor of this gallery, first one is ‘Protect me, Break me, Make me Yours’, the shortest BDSM poem she has ever written, “inspired by a drawing of a woman with an expression in her face that says she wants something, longs for something, and same time is a bit scared to go there”. ‘Slavegirl’, was made especially for the Gorean people in second life. “Gor is different from traditional BDSM, but some things are similar - the dynamics in the relationship often are the same, but Gor has different protocol from BDSM. It's very personal what kind of kinky lifestyle one likes; no relationship is ever the same, as we all are different people.” The last artwork on second floor of this gallery is not a poem by Zena, but a quote from Marcus Ranum: “From a discussion about submission in email, I asked him if I could use it as a quote in my gallery, and he allowed me and of course it is illustrated with one of his wonderful submission photos.” Take a trip to Zena’s Galleries to find out exactly what Mr. Ranum had to say.
LadySen Laval
Teleport to Zena's Poetry Galleries:
Zena's Witches Poetry Art Gallery
Zena's Mystic Poetry Art Gallery
Zena's Sensual Mystic Poetry Art Gallery
Zena's BDSM Poetry Art Gallery
For the interview about Zena's Sensual Mystic Poetry, read the first interview here:
Interview Zena's Sensual Mystic Poetry
