CORDOBA

CORDOBA

I was in medieval Cordoba
at the height of its power
and its prestige,

when I found myself, perhaps
having blinked too hard,
in Paris May ’68 and
then in
Times Square New York
sometime yesterday
or maybe tomorrow

watching an Empire slowly
grind itself down to powder

whilst somewhere in these
crowds a Holy prophet and
Christ incarnation
is quietly, deliberately,
avoiding the vanity that
feasts upon
supreme spectacle
       (Naomi’s false idol)

searching for what was
lost, destroyed,
that it be found, healed,
restored,
      re-established in
single searing moment
of absolute connection

meanwhile
   in a playhouse in the centre
of Philadelphia, an outraged
Dionysus plots
King Pentheus’s demise

his worshippers find themselves
swept up by a force
beyond the power
of resistance
awake to the reality
of a primal, divine
revenge
    soaked in the blood of
their rapture,

egged on by the god to cross
the presumed defining linit
of humanity itself m.

Signs and wonders:
we so desperate that they
submit
to our systems
     not rupture the fabric
of meaning itself

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

on the farm,
perforce, we
put our heads together

everything under the Sun
puts is head together

wheels
    set in
              motion

as
word        speads

and Heraclitus of Miletus
stops by

a number of things
brings to mind

solid argument inclusive: that
all is
     twice, thrice,
there is nothing that
is not in process

meanwhile (forgive the inadvertent South African
colloquialism) not
back
    at the ranch
but in the heart of Johannesburg

they are staging a production
of Euripides’ The Bacchae
have
already
     launched into
the opening scene

which very instant, being
in the audience my
mind
     thirsting for
ecstasy
    veers towards chaos, entropy,
fractal mathematics

as we suddenly welded into one
sift and exchange
that whole Pandora’s box
of memories and
recollections

whispers and ghosts
the very
        incantations that
pull aside the veil, strip
off the veneer

speaking for myself
               but
perhaps all

hardly able to wait, kill
that terminal longing,
                               set eyes
upon the mask
that is
        dark Dionysus’ face

HERE


HERE

it was not a great play

the Danish constabulary
arresting Hamlet’s
uncle
    in the final
scene

bringing him to justice
full force of the law

warm
    inside we felt
but harrowing catharsis
was what we
paid for

nothing quite like the blood
soaked stage
       that marks the escalation
to biblical proportions

full geometric progression
that marks the fulfiment
of desired revenge

likewise
      love restored
Othello and Desdemona
working on jealousy and
self image
    in partners’ therapy

or Dionysus giving Pentheus
a book to read
      about his divinity help
this stupid
  fascistic king

better understand
         the god of ecstasy’s ultimate
terrible kindness,
beautiful power
     (Nietzsche’s The Birth
of Tragedy
could do this well)

but
    none of these cut it
none make the cut
          regarding what
we need.

the hours spent in the theatre
must alter time, change
our perception

bring us
      to the threshold of
apocalypse at the
                  insane spectacle

such as

          is in flood across

the airwaves
.
as is presented here