An Archaic Smile

Moscophoros (Calf Bearer), Athens Acropolis (c. 570 BCE)

Music for a while

Shall all your cares beguile.—John Dryden / Henry Purcell, Oedipus (1692)

When you can’t write, write, an old saying goes:

You know what nobody else knows! But so

Do I. And should this knowledge be preserved

Or lost? And if the former, why? We need

To forget—it’s an essential human role.

To know the world we cannot grasp it whole,

But have rather to sum it up in bits

Working out for ourselves where each best fits.

Art was invented to preserve a trace

Against the rules that pin things in their place.

Rules, you argue, were made to be broken.

If so, I’ll leave my final thought unspoken

And simply offer an Archaic smile

To serve as music for a little while.

October 31, 2024

Halloween 2024

"All politics is apotropaic

Ritual aimed at averting evils."*

Like the skeletons in the garden,

It works by begging Satan’s pardon.

Imagined sins rouse real devils

Costumed to undo the quick—

These horrors medicate the sick!

In their wake this Halloween

Get set to sing a civic scream,

Hoping that it's all a dream.

* Anon. “Greek apotrópaios . . derivation of apotrépein ‘to turn away from, turn aside, avert.’” —Webster’s.

October 30, 2024

Role-Playing

“Never miss a good opportunity to shut up.” ― Will Rogers

I am a minor character in my life.

There’s no protagonist as yet.

I fear that one may suddenly appear

And shift the apple cart into high gear.

We minor characters don’t have much to say.

I think we’re better off that way!