Orpheus like One Crucified
His music tamed a god and tamed the world
Except for human hatred. Fiercest birds
Orpheus by Astrid Zydower
Rose up to beauty’s calmer heights. Love swirled
Around the poet’s music and his words
And animals around his shouldered arms
To find there curled up peace. The King of Hell
Was moved to tears and tried to halt the harms
Of death to the bride and groom. To feel the swell
Of Orpheus in the song was like the beat
Of pulses from on high, from moon and star,
From heroes and the goddesses, a suite
Of constellations sending from afar.
The Greeks knew passions fiercer than a man,
Spite that stretched a wide and unplumbed span.