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Following the Recipe of Ancient Syrio-Greek Magicians

Said an aesthete: "What distillation from magic herbs
can I find—what distillation, following the recipe
of ancient Greco-Syrian magicians—
that will bring back to me for one day (if its power
doesn't last longer) or even for a few hours,
my twenty-third year,
bring back to me my friend of twenty-two,
his beauty, his love.

What distillation, following the recipe
of ancient Greco-Syrian magicians, can be found
to bring back also—as part of this return of things past—
even the little room we shared."

poem by Constantine P. Cavafy
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Neolithic To Greco Roman Time Lost Ritual Overtones

Neolithic rituals primal urges Greco Roman votive offerings
Neolithic polished axe hoards beg question votive victories
or authority to net rule in peace to execute like Roman fasces?
power jurisdiction wielded society as strength through unities
votive offerings prayers beg need fulfill embedded perplexities?
Bronze Age axe hoards morph into what high status artifacts

swords spearheads anticipate achievement of sharp pointed wishes?
define mist millennia centuries into cult time cut religious purposes?
swords spearheads buried ritually cast into water bodies peat bogs
sacrificed into bodies of water rivers bogs of no possible recoveries?
ritual hoard objects often all broken killing future utilitarian usages?
deposition purposefully discarding valuable items swords spearheads

achieves what individual social time lost fixated ritual overtones?
what mysteries into rivers lakes wet places cast what urge needs?
what neurons spark brain zaps fire camera flash in core vortexes?
votive faces eyes ears see hear appear ever attentive guardians?
terracotta votive offerings amass phalli breasts uteri fascinates?
possibilities pre Viagra Greco Roman Bacchantes desires orgies?

poem by Terence George Craddock
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God Hates This Heart

Whom have I in Heaven
But you
There is nothing on earth
I desire beside you
My heart and my strength
Many times they fall
But there is one truth
That always will prevail

God is the strength
Of my heart
God is the strength
Of my heart
God is the strength
Of my heart
And my portion forever

God is the strength
Of my heart
God is the strength

[...] Read more

poem by Ramona Thompson
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Art is everywhere you look for it, hail the twinkling stars for they are God's careless splatters.

classic quote by El Greco
Added by Dan Costinaş
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Eros and Thanatos

I find a suffused light
In El Greco's paintings,
In the still air
As always before the storm,

In the non-burning fire,
In the burning-out flame,
Such as life or love.

Eros and Thanatos -
Both almost the same psyche,
Because nothing changes.
Perchance only the light,
When it is less reflected in your eyes,
And loses its shine.

poem by Zofia Walas, translated by Dan Costinaş
Added by Dan Costinaş
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I said to the almond tree, "Friend, speak to me of God," and the almond tree blossomed.

Nikos Kazantzakis in Report to Greco (1961), translated by Peter A. Bien
Added by Lucian Velea
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Christians were regarded as separated from society and therefore destructive of the Greco-Roman way of life.

quote by Kenneth Scott Latourette
Added by Lucian Velea
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We have today a fairly thorough knowledge of the early Greco-Roman period because our motivations are the same.

quote by Arthur Erickson
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Hastings

The Greco-Roman and the early Christian Religions,
I am Hastings in the land of the Bible;
But your doctrines are not the same as sated in the Book of Truth.

poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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Museum Piece

The good gray guardians of art
Patrol the halls on spongy shoes,
Impartially protective, though
Perhaps suspicious of Toulouse.

Here dozes one against the wall,
Disposed upon a funeral chair.
A Degas dancer pirouettes
Upon the parting of his hair.

See how she spins! The grace is there,
But strain as well is plain to see.
Degas loved the two together:
Beauty joined to energy.

Edgar Degas purchased once
A fine El Greco, which he kept
Against the wall beside his bed
To hang his pants on while he slept.

poem by Richard Wilbur
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