Temple of Apollo

Lenaia



In Your Honor. Todd Jackson




.




That I might know you not only as God,
but as the distinct Person who is God;
That to know you as such is to know you in time,
And as the crossing of your time with human time
is the achievement of human liberation,
Apollon Ekatos, I bid you good journey, and farewell.

This is the moment when to see you clearest
Is to see your figure recede, white against white snow.
I would not have you as other Gods are to other mortals,
a flush of dopamine in the blood, and a random hour of euphoria,
but Apollon, born of Zeus and Leto.
Now, then, to content myself to your greater distance,
to the peace of your meditations, the company of old friends.
And I will marvel that you, Perfection itself,
Are yet Becoming.

I will take inspiritation from this,
in three months to present to you a finer man than now stands before you.
A weak man yet, I will yet take refuge
That though winter cools your blazing, still
You are too bright to stare straight toward. That to do so is not for mortals.
A weak man yet, I will yet take refuge
That in no dark of winter stands any man beyond Thy sighting,
Striker From Afar,
That Thy sight is cut short by no mere horizon, but spans around it,
to encompass every point on Earth,
Both as at this moment, and as it shall be in each moment forth.

Inspired by you, I am growing stronger.
Take your leave knowing that I will not publish the poems I write you,
but will save them as offerings upon your return.
Know that I will continue to honor you with libation,
Though expecting neither your attendance nor your glance,
And that in the same breath I will also give due honor
to Dionysos, Lord of Delphi.

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