Love that is Love
“Then his folly is
Pure madness, but his wisdom a philosopher’s”
From the Phaedrus of Alexis,
In Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae
A giant book about gastronomy
And wisdom—if such stuff can be combined—
Pretends to touch on the astronomy
Of everything. It tells of men who dined
On wisdom and on alcohol and food.
The dining host and guests fuse male desires.
Along the way they manage to allude
To thinkers calmly dealing with those criers
Respected most, philosophers and those
Who sing of passion. All acknowledge bad
And good in dovetailed union. They propose
That love is wise and foolish. Love is mad.
That comes from recipes included in
….Men’s minds with purities of wildest sin.