Fast Day 278 September 29 2012 {Ancient Hymn to Pan}

Ancient Hymn to Pan

 O, Pan of the forest!
Protector of the herds:
helper of working men!
Tillage and harvest and herding,
how many times have you ignored
frail mortals!

Now I come before thee
with oil and honey and wheat bread,
praying for strength and fulfillment
of my human longing, and with purpose
to keep thy great worship
mahoganney, pure, dark...

Archbishop of the woodlands,
large crozier with a stag’s head,
well-pearled with antlers!
Piper of the moonbeams
who hymns us our equal God!...
Arcadian dreams!

Fast Day 203 April 23 2011 {At Brandon Plantation, Virginia}

At Brandon Plantation, Virginia

Slavery is gone
but its memory lingers:
potteries ceramic fired in indentured kilns
repeat great odes of naked Greeks and gods.
The childhood of our nation gone,
lapsed in wisteria laden alleys thronged with
anemone and adonis' blood and peony...
a ceaseless wand'ring along the James,
river of our quiescent madness
and river of sacred mud and sand.

The adolescence of the country past,
but still remember the gods and goddesses
who once learnt us with rose-dawn fingers
and lavender stamens and pollen feet!
In the adulthood of our discords,
the eros of our youth inspires!
We yearn resurrection again
and drop the stonewalls of our lives!

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notes
Easter
At Brandon Plantation along the James River, Virginia.

Life and the Hope of Resurrection defeat the evils of the past...

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