Out Of Habit

[poliphilo]

I believe I have said all I once needed to say. If I continue speaking it is out of habit. I could, of course, repeat the things I once needed to say, but I hate to do that.

Actually I'm not entirely sure what the things I needed to say were. They had their moment. I spoke them. The moment passed. The archive of this blog contains them- if you care to look.

Ars longa vita brevis: in fact the reverse is true.

Here's something I'd like the archive to contain. A poem I wrote a good while back. The names are the names of the pleasure cities of the Nile delta- which were gaudy and gimcrack in the days of Antony and Cleopatra and have since been flooded.

CANOPUS, HERAKLEION, MENOUTHIS

Once they danced here in tavernas,

Pigged on cakes and calimari,

Shagged divinely in the myrtles,

Praised Serapis, Lord of plenty,

While the flute-song, lightsome, winsome

Jigged above the sounds of water.

Light, bright water, sun-shot water,

Thickening as the diver searches

Silts in which white marbles sicken.

Comments

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

A very sensual poem and one with movement. I like it and the "sound" of it when I read it out loud.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I am sure new insights or observations will continue to come to you. You always seem to have wise things to say. Keep journalling.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. We'll see what happens....

[mummm.livejournal.com]

I really like the poem, though there is one word in it that seems too contemporary to go with the rest. See if you can find it... :^)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Shagged?

[mummm.livejournal.com]

Yes sir

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

Lovely. Sounds like Longfellow.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's in the Hiawatha metre.

You know I hadn't consciously noticed that before.

[sovay]

Actually I'm not entirely sure what the things I needed to say were.

Then you don't know if you still need to say some of them.

I like particularly the last three lines.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

And there's the possibility I'll be gifted with a whole bunch of new things to say tomorrow....

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

This sounds like a place where I would have liked to be, back when I was young and my limbs were supple.
A beautiful poem! But a bit sad, too, that all things must change - or pass away.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

..As indeed they must.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I like this.

Nine

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.