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Sovereignty

               Sovereignty “Is it simply that people who philosophize think that people who produce, consume, or appreciate poetry (the philopoiêtai) have the wrong priorities, and the proponents of poetry think the same of the philosophers?” ~...

Philopoiêtai, Poetry Lovers from Time Immemorial

Philopoiêtai, Poetry Lovers from Time Immemorial “Plato’s Symposium shows how Plato deploys dramatic irony to undermine philopoiêtai’s use of poetry. Elizabeth Belfiore (“Poets and the Symposium”) argues that the dialogue’s first five symposiasts, in their poetic...

The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry

The Truth about Ancient History, Plato, and Poetry “Socrates says in the Republic that he and Plato’s brothers might have to inform poetry about the ancient quarrel between it and philosophy. Glenn Most (“What Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry?”) argues...

Ancient Art

          Ancient Art “the ancients had not that conception of beauty separated from goodness which forms the basis and aim of aesthetics in our time” ~ Leo Tolstoy A moral pillar rises from the base Of ancient poetry and art. The stone Is hard and white. It helps...

Myths of Poetry

            Myths of Poetry The early words of poetry arose From darkness in the depths of throat and lungs In caves and mixed with burning air.  The bows And arrows in the shadows gave the tongues That sang the blood and flesh which chanting needs. Or else out on a...

Unmasked

               Unmasked I never dreamed I’d be a drag queen on God’s Grand Canal, a golden-nylon-haired One with the face of Princess Di, a swan That Dalí would be proud of, if he dared. I never dreamed I’d be impregnated By Charles, the Prince of Wales, while riding...

Meaning through Cosmic Hush like Unheard Throat Singing

Meaning through Cosmic Hush like Unheard Throat Singing ‘If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss gazes into you.’ ~ Friedrich Nietzsche The positive and negative commune. The cloven orange canyon strata yell In silence, paralyzed agony hewn And made of...

Oracular, or Delphi at its Worst*

Oracular, or Delphi at its Worst* In Homer’s time, no word existed for Art. Praxiteles and Sappho had no term For it. The Greeks had not even the spore Of such a word, so Plato spoke no firm Ideals about that thing which we call art. He had too much, perhaps, to say...