The W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt #98 Poet of the Week Nigel Byng invites us to write an ekphrastic poem inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’ (1577–1640) painting of Samson and Delilah (below).
Nigel also supplies an additional challenge to include this line from Samson’s wedding riddle: Out of the strong came something sweet.
I wrote my poem The Veil of Seduction inspired by this prompt.
The Veil of Seduction
The Veil of Seduction
The perfume swirls with luscious scent
Around the bedroom battlement,
Plum satin swathes of voluptuous decadence
The colour of deep red grape’s intoxicating wine
Enwrap, Entwine her body’s curve,
Her beguiling glances and veiled dances seal his fate,
The potent thoughts unveil and undulate
to silken swerve through his love-lorn mind.
With verve his hands caress each fold and pleat,
Beneath the gown his one true heart,
And in mystery darkness find
and meet
His female’s guile,
His whole world is at her feet,
In a blinding haze of effervescence—
Rising to the long savoured cadence—
Out of the strong came something sweet.
Samson lay in obsequious obeisance,
above
The woman of his dreams in repleted love.
Her perfume swirls with oppressive, vinous scent,
In betrayal while he dreams,
Shorn from his magnificent heroic head,
His mane of curls,
unheard to him their silent screams,
Delilah, lady of Sorek,
curvaceous limbed, fair of face,
turns her graceful neck to watch her lover’s plight,
She’s earned her wage upon this cruel fake wedding night.
The Nazirite, by god’s grace,
Captured and imprisoned,
will no more matter.
Tomorrow his gouged unseeing eyes,
envisioned like steak on a silver platter.
Without his hair,
He is no longer strong.
Sorry, Delilah, you got it wrong.
Shackled on display between two pillars for all to see,
Samson prayed to his God for strength.
With mighty power from above,
(And a hefty push and a shove)
The twin pillars collapsed and tumbled.
Killing many Palestinians—and his self included.
Crumbled.
~
What is the moral of this tale?
Be careful who you fall in love with,
behind the seduction veil.
~
Lesley Scoble, March 2024
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you Nigel, for your Biblical Rubenesque challenge.
My thanks, as always, to our most gracious host David, The Skeptics Kaddish.
Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.
LesleyScoble.com 
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