Suppose the Greeks were right – <br />that, though some of us <br />may seek to climb Olympus <br />(the rocky scramble exhilarating <br />in the moist fresh morning, <br />the scent of coffee, baking bread, <br />rising from the valley below, <br />the occasional shout of shepherd to his dog, <br />up higher, the tiptilt goats surprised, <br />and then the mist, the thinning air, <br />the inner urge, ambition <br />fading, as humility, surrender, grow) <br /> <br />that all of us, fully although seemingly in some degree, <br />yearn for the True, the Good, the Beautiful, <br />perhaps not in that order, or at least at first, <br />and believing or not believing <br />that ultimately, we may know the state <br />when in their glory, all these three <br />might merge, be indistinguishable; <br /> <br />for this, no climb is needed, since <br />the gods - the Greeks were sure of this - <br />dwell ever in our hearts; at rest, but <br />waiting for their call, or ours, <br />to show us to ourselves, and bursting forth <br />in what we recognise as enthusiasm.. <br /> <br />but for those who love to climb, <br />who love the view, the upper air, <br />the risk, the challenge and the sport - <br />the topmost crags surmounted, <br />the scree no longer playing its game <br />of snakes and ladders with our feet and hearts and minds, <br />the clouds like a white, concealing mystery, <br />now below us; the gods invisible to ground level eyes <br />run eagerly to greet us in our hearts; we now <br />pure oxygen for the others still visible <br />through breaks in the white clouds of poetry, <br />climbing on their way; our hearts breathing pure oxygen for them <br />saying yes the climb is worth it, <br />the Greeks were right.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0023-the-truth-about-truth-etc/
