ANCIENT GREEK-STYLE PERFORMANCE ON POINT OF VIEW
IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL ILLNESS POETRY
Susie Wilson
* Start walking, while the head tune plays. *
You you you you you you you you you you ;
you you you you you you you you you you .
* When it seems right, perhaps on the next outbreath, stamp feet. *
You you, you you, you you…
Y. O. U.
* Moving from rustic dance into lament – think bridge & chorus. *
Why you?
Oh, why you?
Oh, why you?
οἴμοι
* Solo. *
No.
No me,
no I.
No ‘lyric shame’,
no confessional
non-sense.
No, no, n O !
No otototototoi popoi da
* Break it down now. Spoken with feeling, falling to stage whisper. *
Oi, you ’n’ all.
Keep your distance, Lady Melanoma.
οἴμοι: Ancient Greek for ‘woe is me’.
otototototoi popoi da: Ancient Greek articulation of grief, horror, despair, physical agony, in tragedies. Untranslatable.
