Some readers may find part of this pair offensive. If you might be offended, do not read these sonnets, please.
“The Men of Ancient Hellas” and “Exodus 34:14”— a pair of sonnets
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
Since ancient Greece’s men are far away
In time, some tend to treat them as divine,
Beyond mere heroes, gods in gold-like sway
Of myth, a lapis lazuli-like mine,
An Attic Greek-blue sky for carving out
The almost sacred texts before a pen
Began to write things down. We think, and doubt
The factualities, but not the men,
The truth of men. They ring so true because
Their marble vices and their virtues made
Of flimsy hormones are exact, like laws
That Plato might pronounce with logic’s blade.
..The mixture of the wine of evil in
,,,,The water of their good is like men’s sin.
Exodus 34:14
“For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous
God”
And then again those men were only men.
What turned them into heroes was the verse—
The poetry—of centuries, voice and pen.
The rape and slaughter of men’s foes was worse
In epic and in playwrights’ lines than what
Havoc the deities bring. Scenes with gods
In petty quarrels brought on death and smut;
And honesty of thought meant that the odds
For high divinities remaining pure
In men’s imaginations were at least
As small as gods’ genitals. The allure
Of making gods vain fatally increased.
..All gods are full of envy: Allah, Zeus,
….Jehovah. Making them nice is abuse.
