Consider Thera: scattered, antique stone
Long sunk below the choked and crowded waves,
Her peaks and pillars ground to dust. 'Round graves
Forgot and drowned, what lost and monstrous moan
Resounds where once the Minotaur, alone
Entombed within the madd'ning, mazy caves,
Succumbed to solipsistic thirst? Who raves
Unheard 'mid Minoan remains? A lone
Caldera, slipping through the waves, beholds
The dross of chance: the gleaming tides that glide
Across myth's errant shoals. As foam enfolds
A coral-formed basilica, the wide
Aegean mask elides the dead, and holds
Resplendent waters skyward, e'er untried.
3 comments:
Wrote this on the airplanes. Writing on paper instead of on a keyboard remains a challenge.
Wonderful! Not only written the old-fashioned way on paper, but also a legitimate Petrarchan! Ooh la,la! It is easily a favourite! (If you ever make the Italian routine, picking favs will be a bit more difficult.)
Seriously, it is the familiar ground of mythology, isn't it? Ruins and fantastic creatures contemplated in the scenes of now's desolation where "nature" presents a different view foreign to such extravagances of imagination.
Excellent imagery creating the poignant scene and eerie sentiments of woe: caldera, watery main, peaks and pillars ground to dust, caves, basilica....
Wow. Impressive and a delight to peruse.
Oh, one other thing: I was zinged for starting many lines with the, a, an, and, of, and so on, so I tried to start every line here with something else. Almost succeeded.
Jenny, yeah, went Italian here - not sure why, but it seemed to work for my mood. Mythology is a bit of a cheat, since I can evoke an entire emotional and intellectual toolbox with a word - sometimes adequately, as is done here, and sometimes clumsily, as was hastily done the poem just previous to this one. Ruins too - symbolic nostalgia. I am pleased with the basilica and the caldedra, and pleased as well that basilica has silica in it. I wonder if I could have extended that further... anyway, glad you liked it. Thanks for reading.
Post a Comment