Fallen Temples
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| Broken Time by Tomasz Zaczeniuk @fotowizjer Used with Permission |
Part 2
Chronos
Though men still bend the knee before his shrine,
they do not know his name, these generations;
forgetful of the beginning, when he first blinked:
The cosmos streamed from his eyes; chaos, birthed:
aether brought to be, while he, unaging father of hours,
took up his scythe and raised consciousness from confusion.
The present does not exist, but is perceived in the fleeting
expressions on faces of indifferent men, who fail to know
that past is no better than imprecise memory, reaped.
Ah, Chronos, hold up a mirror to the unwitting passer-by,
unveiling truth: bid man genuflect before the reflection
of his own imminent demise. The future consumes all.
This is the second part of my new series of poems, "Fallen Temples", inspired by the genius of surreal artist, Tomasz Zaczeniuk.
I wonder if Chronos will ever be able to get man to look at its own face, at what his actions are planting, at the harvest that promises to consume the flesh and bone of the farmer who believed himself god of crops...
ReplyDeleteLoving the poem(mything).
I have thanked you for your generous response to this series of poems, Magaly, and I thank you again, for taking the time to visit and comment.
DeleteThank you for writing and sharing.
DeleteGiver, and reaper ~
ReplyDeleteAmen, brother.
DeleteDamn new tech browser, it leapt past my comment mid-sentence ... proves the point which you make so well here. I will have to take the time to go back and read. Absolutely love the final line of the third stanza ... Cronos the Titan feared the future -- that's why he ate every child to leap from Hera's womb except Zeus, the one foretold to overtake him, fed instead a stone wrapped in swaddles ... Our past is truly prologue, but to what, to what? We leap into a greater staightjacket, its seems. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThank you, B.
DeleteIt is rather confusing... I believe there were two separate godly figures: Chronos and Cronos. The Chronos, of whom I write, is the epitome of Time, which according the to Greek Big Bang Theory fathered the world with Inevitability.
Who does not fear the future, I wonder, the present being such a stink bomb?!
This is beautifully evocative, Kerry!❤️ I wonder if Chronos is itching to put some sense into man's head and make him see the error of his ways. "past is no better than imprecise memory, reaped." Oh yes!
ReplyDeleteTime tells a different story, I fear. One of repetition.
DeleteChronos is only as harsh as truth. And truth is always there, whether you acknowledge it or not.
ReplyDeleteYou sum it up very well. Thanks, Rommy.
DeleteThat last stanza knocked me to my knees. Genuflecting before the altar of great poetry.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the awesome comment, Tim.
DeleteSo well expressed. We do things and don't even know why. We act as if we believe we are immortal.
ReplyDeletePerhaps that is all we can do, in the face of oblivion.
DeleteGenuflecting before our own demise. Wow! Powerful, Kerry.
ReplyDeleteTime is our single greatest obstacle, yet we take the minutes and hours for granted.
DeleteI enjoy your poem series, Kerry, (I loved the poems based on The Tempest) and it’s wonderful that you have discovered Tomasz Zaczeniuk – the image is truly inspirational – and that he has led you back to mythology. The imagery of the second stanza reminds me of William Blake. The message in the third stanza is potent – for all that scholars study history, no one ever learns from it. What if the future doesn’t come?
ReplyDeleteYes, indeed.. A future will come but it may not be the one we expected, and of course we die along the way.
DeleteThank you for your insightful reading. I do like to find an idea which can be expanded on, and Tomasz's surrealism triggers a response in me.
How wonderful it is to read this poem again! I love how you go back to the very beginning of the myths before the titans and the gods to denote the expanse and reign of time. The myth and mythical elements add into the understanding of the human condition — this line grips me with its veracity and power: "who fail to know/that past is no better than imprecise memory, reaped."
ReplyDeleteThank you for your take on the mythological starting point. I like to know the story behind the stories, so I kept digging in the old myths. Greek creationism is extremely layered and not unlike scientific theories of the 20th century, albeit the process is anthropomorphized. Fascinating to me, and I am glad if it is to you too.
DeleteThis is excellent, to me this is the mightiest of Gods...the grinder and reaper, the bearer of hope, the darkness and light. Love life and death... what a great idea of a series.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Bjorn. I am so intrigued by the way in which the ancient civilizations wrapped their heads around the science of the cosmos.
DeleteThis is excellent Kerry. Time marches one, grinding us into the dust, making the sun rise, making us old, giving us babies.
ReplyDeleteYes, giving and taking in turn.. quite a fair system. Thanks, Toni.
DeleteThe present does not exist, but is perceived in the fleeting
ReplyDeleteexpressions on faces of indifferent men.... I love that line!
Hard to get to grips with the idea that all existence is a delusion of the mind, even this instant.. which is already gone.
DeleteA wonderfully thoughtful poem!! So much to like, and to think about, from beginning to end.
ReplyDeleteexpressions on faces of indifferent men,
ReplyDeletewho fail to know that past is no better
than imprecise memory, reaped
Those without directions let life to take its own course unwittingly getting themselves entangled in many little problems which could have been easily overcome. Very true Kerry!
Hank
I enjoyed reading your work, Kerry. The Chronos and the aether are now being filled with live and decaying electronic signals. That's where TV, radio, and radio travel. Also where the deleted eMails go, lost almost ever. Mother Nature has no "trash ben." Only on computers unless they've been deleted and sent into into the cosmos.
ReplyDelete..