Circles within circles
Eagle and serpent
Quetzalcoatl consuming his tail
What day is it
And what time of day
What day of the year and what season
All turns – all lives and dies and lives again
But are we dead or alive
Do we walk in spring or autumn
And is it dawn or dusk
Where do we stand in the ancient celestial calender
Dante saw a sepulcher and Sturluson a wolf
In his father’s death each fashioned the turning of the epoch
And the child of the lion saw mountains beyond mountains
What are we saying
And are we screaming or do we stand mute
Who has the voice and the power and the glory
Envy it or spit upon it
But do not cast it into the consuming flames
I or you – the man or the woman
Have I bound a rag across your face
And are these words of dominion I speak
The camel eats itself and lives forever
And the child grows ever to the man
The call of the ram’s horn echoing again and again and again
Who is the "child of the lion," and what do you mean by "the camel eats itself and lives forever"?
ReplyDeleteThe former is a reference to Nietzsche's three metamorphoses: the spirit becomes the camel, the camel becomes the lion, and the lion then becomes the child; the latter is in the same vein but also implies his idea of the eternal return of the same, though i used Kingsolver's words from Poisonwood Bible - the forest eats itself and lives forever.
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