Sonnets of Seven Greek Philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Zeno of Citium, Diogenes of Sinope, Heraclitus, & Protagoras (Additions to "The Apology Box")

                   Plato’s Sonnet

            (A liberated caveman)

When I was tethered up inside the cave

Where I could see but shadows on the wall

I craved to see how Real Things would behave.

I plotted my escape through study:  all

Real Things should be discoverable in the end

Though first unseen directly.  I knew there

Must be Real Forms somewhere since shades depend

On Something Real to cast them.  With great care,

I studied every shadow so I might

Infer what cast the umbrage.  In that way

I burrowed backward out into the Light.

I now see plainly Forms have Forms, and they

Have culmination here in that one Form

Of Good that I predicted as the Norm.

Confucius and Lao Tzu (Additions to "The Apology Box")

            Confucius’s Sonnet

Mere force brings no true order since forced change

Warps from without and thus can never fit

An inner nature that’s rejecting it.

Without such fit, there’s but apparent change.

As mere force is deficient, sages thus

Discount it.  Righting wrong, they find a way

To change a man by his own choices. Thus,

They speak and do precisely. Sages sway

With virtue and right language of the kind

They’ve learned in studies of the old archives

Of ritual and common mythic mind.

Their teaching teaches them. Example drives

Without a whip. On earth, in heaven, too,

Truth bans all thrashings hells purport to do.

            Lao Tzu’s Sonnet

Would breath that loathed to make a sound in life

Somehow reverse itself in airless death?

Would it somehow convert itself at last

Into fools’ terms?  No--death is muter still.

I’ve neither arrogance nor wish to harm.

I’d not presume an ant cares how my mouth

Might label it.  I all the more of course

Would not presume that heaven gives a damn.

Man’s categories cause him needless ill—

A man can’t covet or despise a thing

Some category’s not disjoined from him.

Man's words spread categories' ills about.

Without air heaven must be wordless.  Hence,

I'm mute where no decrees expel me hence.

© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016

The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.

Boethius, St. Ambrose, and Marcion the Docetist (Additions to "The Apology Box")

               Boethius's Sonnet

Was Theodoric’s prison in the end

That proved the real academy.  Was there

They taught first hand true good cannot depend

Upon mere fortune.  There caged in despair

This humbled bureaucrat learned power flees

In but a moment and, too, learned, how fast

“Good” title both in name and properties

Is marred.  Yet, I found hope!  Though no things last

Below at length, that maid Philosophy

Took pity, visited dark dungeons and

Consoled me with her higher poetry

Of permanence.  Caressing that sweet hand,

I thought no more of nooses or of cells

But of divinity and where it dwells.

 

               Saint Ambrose's Sonnet

Before the awful bench where all will stand

We come in turn to plead and do admit

Our errors though in doing so submit

In mitigation it was not our hand

That sought the staff.  Instead, Milan asked.  We

Were acquiescent, humbly turned our backs

On Roman boons (yet kept her bones as racks

For Christian ornament--past lies would be

Upholders of the truth.)  Thus we transformed

Words, music, marbles, even living flesh--

Behold Augustine we baptized afresh.

Mere spirit now, our temporal see performed,

Pray let us see Rome’s church ascending now

Above Rome’s ruins we’ve refurbished now.

             

            Marcion The Docetist’s Sonnet

I’ve kneeled before the true God now revealed

Through that majestic phantasm called Christ

That clarified true faith and thus repealed

The older books.  Sweet ghost!  If sacrificed,

I knew it was not God.  Perfection by

Its very terms can never suffer.  For

To suffer is to lose, to be less than

Complete and thus prove imperfection.  Nor

Could it have been a man.  Though man could be

Sinless despite the lie of Eden, You

Could not allow a sinless man to be

Condemned and killed for sins he did not do.

Great ghostly messenger!  It had to be

Of course fantastic coming, Lord, from Thee!

© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016

The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.

Cyrus and Esther (Additions to the Apology Box)

     Cyrus The Great’s Proof

It’s wrong to disown any family.

We must be fair in hospitality

To every member. We may not despise

Another made in Heaven’s image.  Wise

Ones know the converse would be blasphemy.

We had to unify.  No boundary

Is moral.  Even Hebrews now are free

To come back in the fold, to realize

It’s wrong to disown any family.

Death can’t destroy your Image. Unity

Has to survive the grave and cannot be

Extinguished.  Live and dead must still comprise

A common brood.  We specters therefore rise

To meet you knowing that you will agree

It’s wrong to disown any family.

 

                      Esther's Sonnet

There’s bravery that’s physical in bed,

That’s cousin to the field of battle’s.  I

Burned with such valor from the day I wed

Another by whose whim I’d live or die.

I passed, had spies, laid trenches in the sheet.

I suffered the assaults but never gave

A true surrender.  I held till defeat

Had closed the enemy within his grave

With my assistance.  There’s no felony

In war’s attack, in what I had to do.

There are no lies or whores in battle.  We

Have heroes or we’ve cowards--just the two.

This star of Esther stayed though others fell:

By name, the heavens are where Esthers dwell.

© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016

The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.

Two Greeks Whose Bones Are Lost in Egypt Now (Additions to the Apology Box)

              Alexander The Great's Sonnet

Sweet novelty of death!  You’ve heard my prayer,

O gods!  There’s more adventure!  I am not

Condemned to idleness.  In brief despair

My reason was confounded. I forgot

The underworld that can be molded by

My sword and genius, too.  Profounder war

Will justify me further.  O gods, I

Shall meld from parts a better whole.  Once more,

I’ll combine East and West and redefine

The normal taste in men--my own won’t be

Scorned but admired.  Good standards will be mine

And I the norm.  Have confidence in me,

Commission me, O Gods.  I’ll serve you well.

I’ll take my sword to every inch of hell!

                    Cleopatra VII's Sonnet

O gods, you should receive at least as large

A welcome as mere Romans had from me.

The Styx of course should waft me on a barge

To you with purple plumèd finery

At least as grand as that displayed before

Mere men.  You’ve no less right to girls perfumed

As sweetest flowers (or to soft skin that’s more

Inviting than a couch or to queens groomed

More perfectly than sculptures to be found

In shrines.)  You’ve no less right to unwrap each

Fold of some gentle garments that surround

A pleasure that lies well within your reach.

Gods, take me now so no fools ever can

Pretend that gods are favored less than man.


© Harold Anthony Lloyd 2016

The current contents of "The Apology Box" can be found here.

The Complete Palladas from the Palatine Anthology

 Translated By Harold Anthony Lloyd  © 2016

Translator’s Notes:

I have compiled a complete verse collection of Palladas in English for several reasons.  First, of course, the merits of the best lines speak for themselves and much of this is lost in prose translation.  Second, almost all that is known of Palladas comes from his verse.  Much like the historical search for the identities of Shakespeare’s young man and dark lady in his sonnets, Palladas’s epigrams provide most of the fodder for speculation about the poet himself.  This of course cannot be done as fully in the absence of every available epigram and therefore requires inclusion of his lesser lines.  Third, this sort of inquiry applies to characters in the epigrams themselves such as Hypatia and the wife of Palladas.  Fourth, the epigrams show the fascinating state of the world as the Greek gods gave way to the god of Christianity.  Finally, the epigrams show the fate of a grammarian who would have lived solely by his art but had to abandon that art in the face of starvation.  This perhaps gives some comfort to other poets who have chosen a trade as well as a poet’s life.

Snow In August (A Book of Original Verse)

 

       Snow In August

She had enjoyed sweet certain knowledge that,
however hot the summer, August brought

its welcome snows upon a boundary fence
that she had kept to please her neighbors, too.

Either Oar (A Book of Original Verse & Translations)

Charms & Knots (A Book of Original Verse)

Part I: Plato’s Pigeon Hole

Part II: Aristotle’s Remainder

Part III: Anthology of Moons & Other Nouns

Dedicated To: The Late Kenneth Hovey, Former Associate Professor of English, University Of Texas San Antonio.  The cover pictures is of Abby (b. April 20, 1991 & d. April 2 2004).

Who read a Chapter, when they rise,

Shall ne're be troubled with ill eyes.

--George Herbert

Revised version December 2009/June 2016

Finding Wisdom in a Fractured World

Archive of Blog Originally Posted 4/5/2014 in The Huffinton Post

We need to discuss the nature of wisdom more than we do. If we can’t articulate at least some measure of what it means to be wise, how can we justify any notion of the good life or of the good society? At this particularly-difficult time when our country seems fractured down the middle, how can we not focus on the nature of wisdom?

The Kingdom Is Within

Archive of Blog Originally Posted 4/16/2014 in The Huffinton Post

Sewing & Sowing Words

 

We’re artisans who sew and sow words.  We sew and sow words for, among other things, organizing, molding, and embellishing the world in which we’re thrust and thrust ourselves.  Words are powerful tools that must be handled with care.  And, yet, too often when sewing and sowing language:

Beyond Rawls’ Fiction: The Veil of Ignorance Is Real

Archive of Blog Originally Posted 3/2/2016 in The Huffinton Post

Biting the Hand That Feeds: Entitlements and the Fundamental Attribution Error

Archive of Blog Originally Posted 5/12/14 in The Huffinton Post

Obamacare and the Self-Made Man

Archive of blog originally posted 3/26/2014 in The Huffington Post

A friend left me a note last night: “My life has been crazy—But with God’s help it will get better.” I’ll come back to my friend. Let me first turn to another quote that drives many Americans crazy and as a result is endangering the life of my friend:

“Every American regardless of his means must have access to reasonable health care. In the absence of a single-payer system, every American regardless of his means must purchase health insurance in the marketplace to guarantee such access.”

What in these words (and their equivalents) raises such ire in decent folk? Americans on the whole are decent folk and selfishness or other immoral motives therefore do not likely underly their anger. Instead, I believe much of their anger turns on the myth of the self-made man. Let me explain.

Americans are proud of their country as a land of opportunity where all can succeed if they just work hard enough. We all know stories of those who rose from rags to riches. We also of course know our own “hardship” stories of pinching pennies to make it through law school or medical school so that we could be the lawyers or doctors that we are today. We pat ourselves on our backs for our hard work and our sacrifices.

By running such gauntlets, we believe that we’ve proved our self-sufficiency. We are self-made men. It’s of course nonsensical to tell self-made men (and those who are on their way to such status) that they must buy insurance. Such persons have already proved that they need no such patronizing. Furthermore, by our example we believe that we’ve proved that others can be self-made men, too, if they will just work as hard as we did. We shouldn’t therefore just “hand” out insurance to those who could have worked for a better status in life. Such “handouts” would encourage laziness. Like self-made men, all other Americans should strive to be self-made men (or the lucky children of self-made men).

Self-made men. What, though, does that phrase really mean? At first blush, it seems a straightforward reference to those of us who relied on ourselves alone, who didn’t whine when we were down, who worked as hard as we needed to work to achieve our goals, as a result achieved them, and thus became self-made men.

However, this “straightforward” definition doesn’t withstand even a sliver of real scrutiny. We are all subject to natural and social forces beyond our control. Despite our best efforts, we get sick and we suffer setbacks. If we made it through law school or medical school by pinching pennies and by hard work, those of course aren’t the only reasons that we made it through law school or medical school (or whatever other school or task you might wish to substitute). The pinched pennies and hard work numerically pale in comparison to the endless number of other factors involved. In addition to all the things beyond our control that could have gone wrong before we even stepped through the doors of law or medical school, we were lucky enough to keep our health throughout the process. We were lucky enough to have the teachers, parents, and other supporters that we had. We were lucky enough to have the fellow students from whom we also learned. We were lucky enough to have the police, military forces, and fire departments that kept us safe as we studied and whose expenses we therefore did not generally mind paying in the form of taxes. (Isn’t it interesting that we generally don’t question taxes to protect the health of our structures but go into a tizzy over taxes to protect the health of the persons inside?) We were lucky enough to have the roads that let us get to school and to have the safe food to eat (however cheap) that allowed us to survive. I could go on but the reader should get the drift by now: no one can be a self-made man in this contingent and interrelated world.

In fact, the more we try to speak of ourselves as self-made men, the more we contradict ourselves. Virtuous “self-made men” are understandably proud of their property which they hopefully charitably share with others. Yet property cannot exist without society — if there are no other people around it makes no sense to speak of property. If there is no one you can ask to get off your land, what could it possibly mean to say that the land is yours? To be a self-made landowner, you therefore require others. But then how can you be a self-made man? As John Dewey puts it, “...[T]he more we emphasize the free right of an individual to his property, the more we emphasize what society has done for him: the avenues it has opened to him for acquiring; the safeguards it has put about him for keeping...” To claim to be a self-made man is thus to renounce the claim.

Once we finally take the myth of the self-made man for what it is, we can begin to be sensible about health care not only for others but for the sake of “self-made men” as well. That’s right, I did say for the sake of “self-made men” as well. The “self-made man” also benefits from universal health care. He, too, could lose all his wealth and actually need his health insurance for necessary care. He, too, should not then simply go to the emergency room and stick the rest of us with his bill. He, too, could catch diseases universal health care could have prevented. His stock portfolio, too, is harmed by the lowered productivity of ill workers and by the lowered productivity of those with pre-existing conditions stuck in jobs that do not maximize their potential. Things that hurt our GDP hurt all of us including the “self-made man.”

Though the “self-made man” should also embrace universal health care, more humble persons concern me as well. This brings me back to my friend I quoted above. She is a woman who has worked hard all her life and who is under no illusion that she is a “self-made woman.” The Republicans who recently took control of North Carolina’s state government have refused to join the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. This hard-working woman is now ineligible for state Medicaid assistance and she does not make enough to qualify for subsidies under Obamacare. The March 31 Obamacare enrollment deadline is looming and in the meantime she has no health care coverage. Though not a “self-made woman” of means, she has done nothing wrong. She goes to church, works hard, takes care of her elderly father, is helping put her daughter through college, and is a blessing to this earth. As the minutes tick down to the end of the month, legal aid workers and kind law students at Wake Forest Law School are trying to provide this hard-working American with access to medical care. They understand that we (including “self-made men”) are all in this together. The rest of us should be as clear-headed.