Andrew

Dodekatemoria 137: Cancer of Pisces

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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Cancer of Pisces: True Thaw

10° Pisces 00′ to 12° Pisces 29′

The weather is changing — puddles appear
in the low places, and the snow banks sag;
mud grabs our footfalls where the ground is clear,
obscuring the prints of chipmunk and stag
The temperature climbs well above freezing
and clouds flee away from the raging blue
so the Sun shines bright for winter's easing
and spring's return — at once both old and new.
But birches aren't yet red with fresh growth,
and whitened coverlets still drape most ground —
the day belongs to neither, and to both;
snow remains, and greenery's not yet found.
We know what will come, but live with what's here,
this tortoise-speed change of the turning year.

Image: A home owner knocks ice off the roof while a traveler on the road pulls a cart from a muddy rut.

Important Relationships

  • Part of the the Egyptian Terms of Venus in Pisces and Jupiter in Pisces
  • Part of Decan II of Pisces (administrated by Jupiter): The Net

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.

Getting 144 things to appear in an official order, 1-144, is a logistical nightmare on this software. Go by number instead.

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