Laura Paul's excerpt from Liber Censualis has been paired with Philip Treacy's "Upside-Down Rose" hat from his spring/summer 2000 haute couture show. Noting the hat's stem of green silk-polyester satin and "real" acacia thorns, Andrew Bolton wrote the following in Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion (2024): "Startlingly lifelike, [the hat] draws attention to the rose's inherent ambivialence of delicacy and resilience, softness and hardness, sweetness and harshness." Like the Treacy piece, Paul's poem links rose to head ("I saw my head / drift apart like petals of a rose") and references Lewis Carroll's Queen of Hearts ("Off with her head!") while also exploring the traditional Ayurvedic practice of shirodhara. A linguistically dynamic poem about healing, transformation, and resilience.
— Paul Cunningham, Editor
from Liber Censualis
Once I was very sick
and for days I underwent shirodhara treatments
where Sesame oil+, Sunflower oil+,
Bhringaraj (Eclipta alba)+, Brahmi/Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica)+,
Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)+, Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora)+,
and Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)+
was dripped on my head
in a continuous stream
I was given a benevolent beheading
one in which I saw my head
drift apart like the petals of a rose
I depicted it like this:
and went from metal head to petal head
Enlightenment activities
that turn what was solid
into what can become flesh and die
joyously
In dropping away like fragrance
I became the flower girl
of my own wedding/beheading
and no longer felt my body
to be a rusted tin can/
empty shell of a broken down car/
a suit of armor
to prevent those who might have once shouted at me,
“Off with her head!”
because of my weirdness
I no longer became guarded, I became garden
I no longer felt I was needed
for speed
Laura Paul is a writer and artist. Her book, Film Elegy, was released in 2024 from PRROBLEM Press. Her book, Total Art, was released in 2025 from Lavender Ink. To find out more, visit: laurapaulwriter.com or @laura_n_paul on Instagram.
Enlightenment activities
that turn what was solid
into what can become flesh and die
joyously
In dropping away like fragrance
I became the flower girl
of my own wedding/beheading
and no longer felt my body
to be a rusted tin can/
empty shell of a broken down car/
a suit of armor
to prevent those who might have once shouted at me,
“Off with her head!”
because of my weirdness
I no longer became guarded, I became garden
I no longer felt I was needed
for speed
Laura Paul is a writer and artist. Her book, Film Elegy, was released in 2024 from PRROBLEM Press. Her book, Total Art, was released in 2025 from Lavender Ink. To find out more, visit: laurapaulwriter.com or @laura_n_paul on Instagram.
