Fragments from the Gone World

 

585px-Muses_sarcophagus_Louvre_MR880

 

XXVII

Simonides of Keos
inventor of the art of memory
said that painting is silent poetry
and poetry is painting that speaks.

He knew the true poet’s wish:
to make a poem whose images speak
to so many people that its words
live on forever.

But forever is much too long
a time. Just ask poor Sappho whose poems
cannot be found except in tiny scraps:
one stuck here, one stuck there,
one found wrapped around a mummy’s head,
recycled to preserve a politician’s memory.

 

from   Eavesdropping in Plato’s Café

 


Next Post
Previous Post