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Yet [*/+/^] : 27.225 MHz, Some Final Measures; Herod The So-Called Great, Frustrated
I have climbed the highest of my palatial towers.
I have stared into the night sky all these hours.
I have peered and squinted my eyes to see afar,
but I will be damned before I see that great, effulgent star.
They found for me Prophet Micah's words in the Book.
One of the scribes said, to my face, "You have to know where to look."
My guards cut his throat for that audacity.
One of those travelers looked so very familiar to me---
very much like the old viisage of Cleopatra's son
(whom Octavian slew---the beautiful adolescent Kaisarion).
But I must wait for them to return to me again,
to tell of my enemy's location, before I turn them in
to Rome. A swift, single, pre-emptive stroke will be the
solution I seek: Octavian's precedenting right idea.
How easy to stumble from here and fall headlong from this height;
as easy as looking up in the sky for some star's light.
Starward
[*/+/^]
The horrors of succession and
The horrors of succession and inheritance. The transgressions are real all thoughout humanity's gory history and it will continue until reality of redemption is invoked for Salvation.
here is poetry that doesn't always conform
galateus, arkayye, arqios,arquious, crypticbard, excalibard, wordweaver
Thank you, Sir, and I agree
Thank you, Sir, and I agree exactly. Both Octavian and Herod were, basically, usurpers---both obsessed with retaining supreme power within their families, and both driven to express that power openly with enormous building projects that nearly bankrupted the economy of the Roman Empire. (The tax enrollment that brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem, where Jesus was subsequently born, was instituted by Octavian---who, by that time, was called Augustus---to refill the empty treasury that he had spent on architecture, both in Rome and through the provinces.) Octavian supposedly murdered Kaisarion (although he could never produce the body) because Kaisarion had the better claim to the Roman imperium; and, of course, Herod attemped to kill Christ, who had, has, and always will have the ultimate throne from which to reign and rule.
By way of historical coincidence, although the Apostle Saint Paul was the first Scriptural writer to call Christ the King Of Kings (in 1 Timothy 6:15), Kaisarion was given that same title (about a century prior to Paul's writings) by his stepfather, Mark Antony.
Starward
Linking two historical
Linking two historical dramas, each one capturing the same venomous ambition, produced quite an explosion. This wonderful work is an ingenious conception that masterfully and uniquely depicts the words: "How the mighty has fallen." Witnessing the frantic desperation of the embodiment of evil is a comforting reminder that human tyranny is a transient condition.
As always, your style reflects the subject with precision and impact—in this case theatrical, powerful classicism.
Another poetic conquest.
Thank you very much. I have
Thank you very much. I have been reading ancient history for over half a century (Jim Bishop's magnificent monograph, The Day Christ Died, started me out on that path), so I am a little embarrassed that it took a half century for me to connect Octavian's attempt to murder Kaisarion (which, to most of the world at that time, was believed to have been a successful murder) with Herod's attack upon the infants of Bethlehem in order to eliminate Jesus. The patterns of their reasoning is exactly the same, and why I missed it all these years I can only explain by my lifelong habit of always being a day late and a dollar short. Yet, as Saint Paul said, I glory in this; and for me, it reminds me of how desperately I need a Savior, and the ackcnowledge ment of that need is an exceeding comfort . . . especially at this late stage of my life.
Thanks again for your comment---as always you understand exactly what my poems are meant to do, and I am sorry for the rather verbose reply.
Starward
I still believe it's amazing
I still believe it's amazing that you recognized a link most people would never have found. Ever. And yes, there is unspeakable solace in trusting in a Higher Power. Blessings.
Thank you so much. This week
Thank you so much. This week has been very serene, as I look at, and plan for, a sequence of poems in a style that is new to my work, but seems to have been in the making since I first aspired to poetry decades ago. I think I still have a bit left in me.
Starward