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Alcuin

Missing image

 

 Kindly refer to Notes

 

 

ALCUIN

 

Awhile pray pause who, passing by the way,
Lines cue, are fed into sped changeling’s clay.
Can you spring from my fate what your’s may be ?
Unwound my clock, soon your’s locked history !
In spite of this world’s gifts, Time’s ticks won’t stay.
Now here, then there sped, bed from care carefree.

About my fads, what gads on you today,
Leaves cause to trace if grace was sad or gay ?
Care you a fig ? How long in memory,
Unused, space race of what Life was to me
In yours may stay, int-urned ? All slips away.
No mor[t]al s[l]ips defy Eternity.

 

At York Bede's rosary I beaded, lay

Learning as priority, salvé !

Charlemagne advised and poetry

Unfettered formulated in my see.

Ideal "truths held self-evident" decay,

Now mocked by some as mere apostasy.

 

Although some style me saint, to dry bones pray,

Let well alone ! To your redemption pay

Complete attention free from falsity.
Unjustified seem myths through which some see
Insight of 'truth' to stem inside dismay,

Near teamed tears stream for yesterdays deemed key. 

 

Avoid crass mediocrity, display
Less pride than tolerance, life's roundelay
Clipped short can't be rebought, rethought, may be
Urge surge repeat from peat.  Cacophony
Is static silenced soon, life's bubble bray
Night stifles, coffin covered carelessly.

.

 

Approach existence as poetic play

Link, ink, and think, don't sink, although you may

Chaos encounter - surface foam, froth, flee.

Untie knots individuality

Insists upon through fear of castaway.

Nudge fast past selfish immaturity.

 

Apart from withered spoon* I sleep. Make hay !

Live for today, rank tyrants disobey !

Come dusk what husk explodes with energy

Unbounded by Time's set inconstancy ?

Importance lies where wor[l]dy interplay

Nets little save self-echo's breviary.

 

Against Time's tide none ride, leaves green today

Lack lustre, sapless soon, roll over play.

Creation calls destruction, mystery

Unendingly recycled, constantly

Insipid aftertaste, lost flavour, grey.

No favour sways fickle sickle's fealty

 

Alas ! Ball questions not life's 'Yea and Nay',

Lets bounce pronounce directions for role play,

Checked, Chance advance swift mated, Fate's decree.

Useless to appeal, squeal 'gainst spiel's fee,

In debt all ultimately must repay,

Nature's 'jeux sont faits', recoups fling's spree.

 

'Are there still Gods who souls with feathers weigh?'
Life’s stings some cling to - just for one more day.
Chance led my dance, the rest is best set free,
Unsightly glance, dust in dust locked.  Agree ! 
If reply lies decoding D.N.A. 
Nature’s template still shrouds secrecy.

 

Awake, then sleep, ave atque vale,

Life's 'cool sequestered vale' ? To what avail

Counts man's short sojourn spent from sea to sea

Under life's unheeding gibbet tree.

If Time soon smothers 'talk of ME and THEE'

Now go ! our one-way track swift stacked away ! 

 

 

.

 

Author notes

for the life of Alcuin c. 735 – May 19, 804 see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcuin



pic 1 Rabanus Maurus (left), supported by Alcuin (middle), presents his work to Otgar of Mainz

: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Raban-Maur_Alcuin_Otgar.jpg

______


pic 2 Stained glass window Princeton University Chapel Alcuin and Witherspoon hence * 'withered spoon'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/akma/2149494859/sizes/l/

Who outside Priceton remembers Witherspoon today ?
______

 


salvé : like the Roman Ave ! the final e of salve in the sense of salve tibi - good health to you and in some respects save your soul ... thus sulvation and salutation is accented and the accent is included here to help the rhyme and distinguish from salve (to heal)

Unfettered formulated in my see : ... in my bishopric ... although there is no definitive testimony to Alcuin ever having been ordained.

"truths held self-evident" U.S. Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Declaration_of_Independence

Bede : Alcuin was Bede's most important student

Venerable Bede , or (from Latin) Beda (IPA: [beda] )), (c. 672 or 673 – May 25, 735), was a Benedictine monk at the Northumbrian monastery of Saint Peter at Monkwearmouth,  


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bede

apostasy : the state of having rejected your religious beliefs or your political party or a cause (often in favor of opposing beliefs or causes)
_________

 

N o mor[t]al s[l]ips defy Eternity.

words in brackets contain several meanings

no mortal, no moral, no more all, while slips differs from the sense of slips away to take on meanings of slips (wraith thin) lips and sips ... which 'of course' leads into

 

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) in An Essay on Criticism , 1709:

"A little learning is a dangerous thing;

drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:

there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,

and drinking largely sobers us again."

 

http://theotherpages.org/poems/pope01.html

 

 

 

The ball no questions asks ... see Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

 

We are no other than a moving row
Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go
Round with the Sun-illumined Lantern held,
In Midnight by the Master of the Show,

But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

The Ball no questions makes of Ayes and Noes,
But Here or There as strikes the Player goes;
And He that toss'd you down into the Field
He knows about it all - He knows - He knows !

The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

 

also

If Time soon smothers 'talk of ME and THEE'

Now go ! our one-way track swift stacked away !  

 

And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
 The Tavern shouted--"Open then the Door!
 "You know how little while we have to stay,
 "And, once departed, may return no more."  

./.

 There was the Door to which I found no Key:
 There was the Veil through which I might not see: 
 Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
 There was--and then no more of THEE and ME.  

 

 

 

 

______

'jeux sont faits'  - Roulette announcement after which no stakes may be added.  - effectively 'end of game'

 

 

' Are there still Gods who souls with feathers weigh?'

 

see final picture from Egyptian Book of the Dead


The Egyptians held that at death the soul was weighed against a feather and, if found wanting, was dispatched forthwith to oblivion

 

Ave atque vale (pronounced avé atquë valé)

latin greeting :  Hail and fairwell !

 

Cool sequestered vale

 

See Thomas Gray Elegy written in a Country Churchyard

 

http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1091.html

 

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learned to stray;
Along the cool sequestered vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.

 

________

 

Penultimate line rhyme scheme change intentional

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Comments


  • iamlost gold member
    May 1
    Edit | Reply

    <

    Wow. That's all I can say. Amazingly in depth, this is quite the poem!

  • iamlost gold member
    May 1

    Edit | Reply
    This is great, I really loved reading this as well! A very interesting story given in poetic form. This is an amazing piece, I love your wording throughout and how you've conveyed this in three acrostics. I think keeping to form is an amazing accomplishment, and now you've done it x3 without it sounding forced at all. Beautifully done, thank you for this entry!

    . Rewarded 6