Stephen Fry’s Troy is the third and final book I read in preparation for Ada Palmer’s upcoming finale to her magnificent Terra Ignota series. This last stop in my self-education about the Trojan War is by far the most comprehensive source I’ve consulted, but also the least enjoyable. Fry’s obvious wit and passion for Greek Mythology notwithstanding, Troy felt more like […]
Abandonment is childhood’s end For leavers and for stayers both The quick lash of window’s light Meets malice at the door Castles turned to trees arrange For leaf’s bright toss And air’s cool whisper In the bright den of dawn Losing time to bed’s fine folds Enwrapped in raptured coverlets This lonely joy kills across […]
The business of broken things comes for everyone, calmly coaxing, flash forward to end’s meat. In time’s taking we supply decay, mushroom fodder, gentle dis-integral. The business of broken things keeps the score, blithely burrowing, back to seeded womb. Returned to exile we dissolve astray, no looking back, no back, no way. The business of […]
The title of Madeline Miller’s retelling of The Iliad is a composite of two alternate names for the classic Greek poem: “The Anger of Achilles” and “The Song of Troy.” This careful bit of wordsmithing mirrors the nature of her project, for The Song of Achilles is a narrative blend of ancient traditions and modern values––a compassionate recasting of […]
She took me with her when she went, Down to the dark place people go. She plied my surface, left me bent, No pack to pack, no space to stow. She broke the compass, tore the map, Blinding out to ocean’s edge. She flayed the wound with stinging strap, Made offerings to drive her wedge. […]
A flow of fresh air fell into your field–– the open door, a portal to things abandoned but not forgotten. Breeze calls the tree limbs home, slanting shade into your slipstream, sunlit, warm and worn. This journey’s craft banks broadly, traversing the low and languorous byway, the last stop before oblivion. Breath holds its pattern […]
Homer’s The Iliad plays a critical role in Ada Palmer‘s amazing Terra Ignota series, so while I wait for the last book to come out I thought it might be fun to familiarize myself with some of her source material. Knowing only the bare basics of Greek history and mythology, I found this a strange but engaging journey […]
Attics are awful places, Teeming with dust, dirt, forgotten faces, When I enter, bent double, the uncertain floor Feels false and I want to run Away. Such things collected, here and there, Brought to the edge of narrow spaces We force our lives through, shafts of light Betray openings in history that close In solitary […]
Greetings, dear friends of the present and curious citizens of the future. When I got vaccinated back in the spring, I thought I was done with the COVID-19 pandemic, at least personally. Well, as it turns out, the pandemic wasn’t done with me! The vaccines, we were told, were our ticket out of the months […]
Absent rings and broken trees, We’ve got our fair share of these. Empty seats and missing words, Taking flight they’re all a blur. When we recall the fall and all the lightened thing within us stalls. When we replant this hymnal rant our next most precious thing just can’t. Separate strides and rotting leaves, We’ve […]