Monday, March 15, 2010

The Wine Drinker

A glass of wine completes my philosophy.

Man’s truest friend, proof against reality.

From beneficent illusions,

I compose a symposium.

This is no selfish appetite,

But an offering to the earth,

As the Arab makes with his hookah.

I will die under the aegis of Dionysus

Like Alexander the Great...

Sacred names of terroir and grape

Flavour the spirit’s inquiries

Through languid underworld quests.

What wisdom may I find here

In these notes and tones?

Autumn’s elixir promises eternal life:

Earth’s Eucharist that a seasoned heart

Will meditate upon,and,in the exchange,

Learn to give.To right disorder.

Sipping blessings,I begin to worship

The deep world from whose mystery

I occur.Chivalrous as a Duke of Burgundy,

In love with the Golden Fleece,

I pledge my dreams to the vine.

The world is what is left behind:

Process and transformation are my loves,

Face to face with the self in the glass,

The painful redeemer, the sinner judged.

Time, too devious and precise

For even the cleverest to dupe or avoid,

Returns a lost and weeping child

To that far-off First Communion.

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