Studio8 - Uniting the Arts

I was reading a passage from Dante by dim light
I came across the eight circle it seems by chance
or not so, there where the Canto finds the forth pit
it calls on the "diviners,soothsayers, and magicians"
in one such translation and what truth and, as it were
magic of words we happen to find ourselves at
it is here that we can always smell a rat
pomp and splendor now how with fish-head Mitre
and its hidden crimes traded for God's rhymes

if we follow Dante's timely descent addressed
to the line of thought that snaked through his
mind we may find all the grave certainty of
a well reasoned poetic drift that confronts
great issues of moral fruit cores and cause
for reflection there upon, where we have come
and where gone through the knowledge of
good and evil and well farewell beyond

so as I contemplated these circle upon circle
stanza upon stanza, allegory upon allegory, image
stacked upon image like shadow upon substance
I too drifted off into a kind of vast cave like trance
pit after pit I fell deeper into this underground swoon
to the place where the suffering souls each told their
vexation through the poet's fiery eyes of blame and pitch
at how the language should have arrived at such
a ditch and came to such a vision of doom and gloom

I laid my glance on much of this kind the scenes
that call out from the ages that also have a ring
of truth of modern day that we are going up or
down in a kind of elevator like in Cabin in the Sky
the devil and his henchmen or the the Devil's
party after Milton whom came later then Dante
yet we see the Inferno and Paradise Lost
through these poet minds seeking the problems
from different perspectives and time frames
see the names of those rebels forged in brimstone
and those others lost the way in garments of power
and desire, though in Dante we never meet the
Devil face to face, we just meet that deep dark
place where the imagination is blackened and

though the images of the tormented ones
going backwards rather then forwards as in
Canto XX we are confronted with the tortured
lack of reason or too much reason fallen down
but if it were Alice in Wonderland we still fall
deeper still and reasons break like eggs or
smile like crazy cats I fall too into this party
of tea mad hats all with madder then thou
notions of just how holy is holy and how deep
is down, oh Alice even if you were naked Eve you
would still ask the snake if he were a cake crown
even if you were Beatrice the role would be reversed
we would follow you all the way to the seven layers
and circles nine and "the silver apples of the moon
and the golden apples of the sun" ...and kiss her lips
of pomegranate by the pale lost sea

loved the sort of intertextual redemption possibilities in this poem! gracias revolutionrabbit, I enjoyed it!!

i imagine 19th century intellectuals liked to kick copies of Inferno into the fire place
and watch the writing warm the room, a great conversation piece.As far
as redemption possibilities, If you can read Dante through you will laugh at the end at the Comedy Divine.But you better have some strong laced wine,
or at least mad cup of tea.