Eschaton ton Emeron….
The end of days…
–David E. T. Emeron
Curiously, my middle initials….?
Or in modern Greek, simply “εσχατων ημερων,” (“eschaton emeron”) or “Last Days.”
Strange the patterns that occur in linguistics. Or even “David” from Hebrew to English and thence to Greek:
–Αγαπητός Ημερων
–Agapitos Emeron
–(Dear Day)
…but my machines most definitely were.
Since I have recently pushed out a humble sequel: The Knights of the Copybook Headings, I proudly offer up Rudyard Kipling’s Original:
AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.
We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.
We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.
With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.
When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”
On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”
In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”
Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew
And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!
via The Gods of the Copybook Headings | David Emeron: Sonnets.
Herein I attempt to link all the relevant posts wherever they may be:
Now, after and, I think during the hole affair, there were even some very peculiar emails exchanged. They seemed to appear in great heaps. Those, however, I did not save, and had I saved them, I would not publish them here for ethical reasons–even if I chose to redact the identity of the author of these.
Related articles (only the first two are actually related, heh)
…I am afraid I am not sure what to call the phenomenon. I think I shall leave it to the reader to decide what “this” is; but I have learned thence that a rabbit hole only becomes deeper if one tries to remove it by digging. I did not generally think the comment box was the best place for a such as this, but It would have been just fine if I had realised a bit earlier and not encouraged all this:
The general advice here keeping with the above analogy is:
Do not feed the rabbits; they will only dig faster.
My! All that from a short note (for me) on haiku!
Oddly striking in all of this: most of my poetry is freeverse, just not what I choose to publish. Early on though, my sonnet writing began. And, because I was emulating/idolizing great writers I most admired, and because my dearest loves it so, I began using (however imperfectly) Elizabethan and Early Modern English. Even then, I found my way to more modern English. You will see it here and there represented. Older forms of English can be more difficult because of the syllabic changes in verb conjugations. As such, modern English is rather more flexible which, of course, is why I use the more difficult form. Besides the obvious, it’s the greater challenge.
Continue reading
…hardest on myself whilst “zeroing in,” as it were, on my six month milestone. This is as my psyche seems to strive for irony.
David Emeron: Sonnets 