Day and Night: Conversations with Sapphic Desire — Crimson Hexagon Archive

Day and Night: Conversations with Sapphic Desire is a collection of translations from the Greek lyric poets—drawn heavily from Sappho but including Alcman, Anacreon, Simonides, Stesichorus, Corinna, Hipponax, and Catullus. An earlier draft won the Platsis Prize for Work on the Greek Legacy at the University of Michigan. The arrangement tells the narrative not of a life but of an affect: the movement of desire from its dawn to its extinction in death. Five movements structure this affective biography: I. First Rays — Dawn, invocation, the Muses summoned II. Bright Morning — Desire kindled, love's intensity III. Zenith — Wedding songs, celebration at the height IV. Fading Light — Loss, bitterness, the turn toward shadow V. Middle Night — Age, memory, death, final starlight Publication History: First published: New Human Press, 2013 Current edition: Mind Control Poems (mindcontrolpoems.blogspot.com), 2025 This deposit: Zenodo, 2026