The Creed

           The Creed

 

Modern poetry  modern verse  contemporary poetry  contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

“One mustn’t accuse Virgil or Ovid of originality, of

wilfully making fictions of such importance.  By the

time of the Roman poets, everything was done upon

established authority, and what was original was the

way the derived pieces were assembled.”

~ Michael Schmidt, The First Poets, 25

Eternal truths cannot be honed and changed.

The thinkers and the poets can at best

Make beauties of a truth rise rearranged

In thought and taste.  The royal bursar’s chest

Holds everything perfection has to give,

Yet when the coffer opens we must find

Its contents, not attempt to add or sieve.

They wait to guide us, lead, not to bind,

No more than compasses or charts would force

A seaman to sublimest shores.  The choice

Is his.  Like Eden’s fourfold rivers’ source,

https://davebold370.deviantart.com/art/Completed-Philosopher-s-stone-564603578

Truths flow for drinking, if we would rejoice.

..Philosophers and poets find that truth

….Is ever changeless in immortal youth.