There’s Old and Old
“Sappho (/ˈsæfoʊ/; Greek: Σαπφώ Sapphṓ; Aeolic Greek Ψάπφω Psápphō; c. 630 – c. 570 BC) was an Archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos.” ~ Wikipedia
“Most of Sappho’s poetry is preserved in manuscripts of other ancient writers or on papyrus fragments, but part of one poem survives on a potsherd.[46] The papyrus pictured […] preserves the Tithonus poem (fragment 58); the potsherd […] preserves fragment 2.” # Wikipedia
The word papyrus is so old we do
Not know its origin, Pre-Greek perhaps.
The oldest dynasty of Egypt knew
It. Through millennia it did not lapse
Until Byzantium or thereabouts.
We easily forget that poets wrote
In air with singing. Sappho’s only routes
To us across the centuries were in note
And heart on breezes till at last she found
Her way to scrolls papyrus gave her three
Hundred years before the Christians. Sound
Became a document more like decree
Or sculpture. Poetry of lust was set
Forever in an ink of soot and sweat.