Off The Page~ a multimedia exploration of painting, poetry, storytelling and music
Paula Meehan's poem, The Solace of Artemis inspired a series of paintings: Artemis Rising, Artemis Takes Aim&, Artemis, Slayer of Methane Monsters, Protector of Life and Honied Oblivious Ones. Some of these paintings focus on the goddess as hunter and others, as protector of pregnant women and children. I imagined Artemis as the original "rebel girl", a lineage traced through maternal mitochondria: strong, independent, tender and fierce.
Meehan begins her poem with these lines:
%I read that every polar bear alive has mitochondrial DNA
from a common mother, an Irish brown bear who once
roved out across the last ice age, and I am comforted./%
Paula Meehan, The Solace of Artemis, (Dublin: Dedalus Press, 2023).
Irish poet and playwright, Paula Meehan's poem “The Solace of Artemis” was first published in the Notre Dame Review in the fall of 2012. You can purchase a copy of this poem with this link www.amazon.com/sk=the+solace+of+artemis…