This is a poem in this series of 144 poems that I’m writing based on the dodeks, or twelfth parts, of the Zodiac signs. As far as I know, everybody else calls them dodekatemoria, but that’s a very complicated word to say, so I just call them dodeks.
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Aries of Taurus: The Deadlines
27° TAurus 30′ to 29° TAurus 59′
Weather is nice — but the work is inside.
The fire’s burned down to bed of red coals.
There’s editors’ notes to act as a guide,
but there’s little besides some abstract goals
and a looming date for publication.
You might want to work in some other way,
than plucking the flame of inspiration
from one’s head, and getting it down, today,
onto some paper. Memory’s fickle —
the thought in the mind has no lasting life
unless it leaves the neck as spoken speech,
or moves the pen like an accurate knife,
’til what remains can inspire or teach.
The chosen time comes and the work must cease;
send what you’ve got… then find a little peace.
Image: A man puts a fat envelope into a mail drop while a woman receives a package from a messenger.
Important Relationships
- Part of Ptolemy’s Term of Mars
- Part of Decan III of Taurus (administrated by Saturn): The Prayer Beads
Colophon
This is a part of a series of poems based on the dodekatemoria, or twelfth parts, of the Zodiac signs. The dodekatemoria are sub-segments of the Zodiac, each representing two degrees thirty minutes (2° 30′) of arc; there are 144 dodeks (as I call them) in the full Zodiac, or twelve in each sign. Each dodek is supposed to be a recapitulation or miniature repetition or summary of its parent zodiac sign, as though it were filtered through the lens of the main sign.
The Sun crosses this distance of 2° 30′ in about two and a half days, making these dodeks cognate with the Moon, which crosses one sign of the Zodiac, or thirty degrees (30°) in about two and a half days. The Sun’s passage through a dodek thus mirrors the Moon’s passage through a sign, and squeezes a “mini-year” of passage through twelve signs into a single month.
Each series of dodeks begins at 0° 00′ of its parent sign with the same sign, and there are four dodeks in each sequence of 10° degrees. Each poem in this series will give a (my) name of the dodek, its relevant degrees, a sonnet describing it, a 1-2 sentence description of the dodek, and some other information.
