From the people of Thebes
No disrespect to Heather McHugh, who no doubt gave a wonderful reading in Evanston last night, but I was disappointed to learn that Gjertrud Schnackenberg would not be serving as poet-in-residence at Northwestern this semester. I never learned what happened there, whether it was a schedule conflict or illness or what. Anyhow, here’s a passage from her 2001 volume The Throne of Labdacus, the beginning of Part Six, “The Alphabet Enters Greece”:
But that was before
The first, tiny alphabet letterEntered into Greece for the first time
The letter Iota,i,Like a fragile, fever-laden mosquito
Struck motionless by the divinity;Struck soundless by the heart
Of barren Greece, where the god touched the letterUneasily, awed. Then Delta appeared silently
In the midst of the words, D,Like the indelible mountain
With an infant king abandoned on top of it;And Theta, like a human infant’s face
Crossed out, J,Before Lambda appeared like a lame man
Leaning on a stick, l,And Omega, like a shining rope
Lowered by Zeus into the midst of thingsAnd ties, by human hands,
Into a noose, W,Before the slain Sphinx of Psi, Y,
Before the rock throne of Eta, H,The Greek letters arranged in the Sphinx-poetry
Of their meaningless order,Reeling across the surface of a metal leaf
Sent to the god as a tribute, or expressing remorse,From the people of Thebes
February 27th, 2008 07:40
[...] the most of the more recent pages in the four hours I had set aside for my taxes last Saturday. This entry alone took me about an hour, starting with finding the right Greek symbols and fighting with Word [...]
April 5th, 2008 15:12
the right greek characters would be…:
iota ?
delta ?
theta ?
lambda ?
omega ?
psi ?
eta ?
copy paste’em :)
greetings from rainy athens
April 5th, 2008 15:13
ooops i tried….it seems it doesnt recognised them :(