Today, for reasons that cannot be revealed here, turns out to be an astonishingly auspicious day to post the complete version of The Heleniad<\/i>.<\/p>\n
I sing this to the young lady in the front row. You others all may listen.<\/p>\n
\r\n THE HELENIAD<\/b><\/big>\r\n\r\nCanto the first<\/b><\/big>\r\n\r\n And so Miss Helenius\r\n Feeling most curious\r\n Not quite anonymous\r\n Yet not yet eponymous\r\n Intent on the spurious\r\n Though nothing injurious\r\n In a moment unserious\r\n Set out on a lark\r\n\r\n Like brazen young Theseus\r\n Or better, Prometheus\r\n Whose tales still fire us\r\n And often inspire us\r\n To passions erroneous\r\n If not quite felonious\r\n But somewhat delirious\r\n And never too dark\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/big><\/i>§ The heart can bedazzle us\r\n And this may be perilous\r\n For the heart is perfidious\r\n And somewhat insidious\r\n Those moments that capture us\r\n Can make us feel rapturous\r\n Till hopes grow innumerous\r\n Quite out of the blue\r\n\r\n The place was commodious\r\n The music melodious\r\n The night serendipitous\r\n For adventure precipitous\r\n As the Gods like to play with us\r\n And so have their way with us\r\n So he, feeling humorous,\r\n Did pick up her cue\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/big><\/i>§ The girl was vivacious\r\n And somewhat voracious\r\n The liquor contagious\r\n The boy felt outrageous\r\n Their mood grew gregarious\r\n Till, feeling hilarious,\r\n They descended the palace\r\n And took to the street\r\n\r\n In this vast megalopolis\r\n Our winter metropolis\r\n What is our true purpose?\r\n Do our moments usurp us?\r\n For when things become amorous\r\n Then our hearts, feeling glamorous,\r\n May drink from the Chalice\r\n And so be complete\r\n\r\n\r\nCanto the second<\/b><\/big>\r\n\r\n Their talk was far-ranging, the rhythm was changing\r\n And rhyme rearranging out there in the night\r\n Their thoughts began drifting, for something was shifting\r\n A curtain was lifting, a song taking flight\r\n\r\n And so then she kissed him, and yes she did bind him\r\n The wall was behind him and yes yes they said\r\n This flower of the mountain, like the girls Andalusian\r\n Perhaps an illusion, her lips were so red\r\n\r\n Her arms were around him, her body imploring\r\n The boy, now adoring, returned her caress\r\n Say yes mountain flower and the wind somewhere blowing\r\n Their hearts madly going and yes I will Yes.\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/big><\/i>§ Moments may sway us, but kisses betray us,\r\n For fate won't obey us, and oft goes astray\r\n Twas fateful that meeting, two hearts fiercely beating\r\n But alas, joy is fleeting when stolen away\r\n\r\n In a turn most appalling the darkness came calling\r\n For a curse was befalling, a thing of their fears\r\n And a figure demonic - it was almost iconic -\r\n In voice monotonic said: \"Seventeen years!\"\r\n\r\n It was all rather vexing, and sorely perplexing,\r\n This grim specter hexing their love most sublime\r\n \"What be you?\" they wondered, then the night air was sundered\r\n As the dark figure thundered: \"The demon - of Time!\"\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/big><\/i>§ \"Je parlerai en fran\u00e7ais\r\n C'est la langue de la v\u00e9rit\u00e9\r\n Pour vous dire ce que je sais\"\r\n Ainsi le d\u00e9mon a dit\r\n\r\n \"Il est temps pour vous d'entendre\r\n C'est le moment de comprendre\r\n Vos r\u00eaves que je veux prendre\"\r\n Alors le d\u00e9mon a ri\r\n\r\n La jeune fille a pens\u00e9e\r\n \"Dix-sept ans\" a-t-elle r\u00e9p\u00e9t\u00e9\r\n \"Cela fait beaucoup d'ann\u00e9es\r\n Et la vie est br\u00e8ve\"\r\n\r\n Le gar\u00e7on a dit \"Mon amour\r\n Je te parle de tout mon coeur\r\n Tu sais que je t'adore\r\n Est ce que tout \u00e9tait un r\u00eave?\"\r\n\r\n En un jour une vie peut changer\r\n Tout est r\u00e9-arrang\u00e9\r\n Un r\u00eave est d\u00e9rang\u00e9\r\n Et l'amour s'est dissout\r\n\r\n Le nuit \u00e9tait tr\u00e8s sombre\r\n Le monde \u00e9tait dans l'ombre\r\n Qu'est ce qui est dans un nombre?\r\n Tristement, peut-\u00eatre tout.\r\n\r\n\r\nEpilogue<\/b><\/big>\r\n\r\n There's a room in my soul where the old shattered dreams\r\n Lie in pieces all over the floor\r\n Where the stillness of time shades the windows, it seems\r\n And a demon stands guard at the door\r\n\r\n But sometimes a memory lights in my mind\r\n And it shines in the soft attic air\r\n And a strange kind of music plays sweetly and kind\r\n That I let myself hear, if I dare\r\n\r\n This flower of the mountain, this girl Andalusion,\r\n This force I could not understand\r\n Yes your touch Miss Helenius was, in conclusion\r\n The caress of a Theremin hand\r\n\r\n But like delicate fragrance of madeleines dipped\r\n Into lime-flowers long gone away\r\n Your succulent kiss so deliciously sipped\r\n Beguiles me even today\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/big><\/i><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, for reasons that cannot be revealed here, turns out to be an astonishingly auspicious day to post the complete version of The Heleniad. I sing this to the young lady in the front row. You others all may listen. THE HELENIAD Canto the first And so Miss Helenius Feeling most curious Not quite anonymous … Continue reading “The poem, complete”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}