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the night star
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"But where danger is, grows
The saving power also."
And from where does this saving power grow?
The world is dying, slowly,
and with it falls humanity,
for what is the world,
known through our hubris
and our tongues,
but humanity's abode
against the gods?
To be saved
to deserve to be saved
takes a soul
and renders it hollow;
takes a law
and makes its force empty;
takes a love
and graces life with dust;
takes a god
of our own creation.
what is this 'god'
this saving force
when what has led us astray
is so very human
and so very worldly,
this "reason"
and this "art".
two answers
flow up from the german past
(from whence the question came):
through play! screams one,
shrill and orchestrated!
through tragedy! screams the other,
insane and apologetic!
but what is this 'play'
this thing
this act
but a combination of the two forces
that independently subvert
human activity?
and what is this 'tragedy'
this thing
this act
but a combination of the two forces
that independently lead
humanity astray?
together,
as the stars intersect producing that saving grace,
in tension combined,
through tension held in,
in our loving embrace
of the formal
and the sensuous
(one gives the words
to their gods,
apollo, dionysus).
here, children of humanity,
is the earth's last picture,
through the chaos of the arts,
the orgiastic rites of dionysus,
and the superficial order of law,
convention, custom,
the time-honoured traditions of apollo,
the theatric plays
of a vital pessimism
rise again in the hearts
of the children not yet born,
but born to struggle,
against those evil, oppressive dwarfs.
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061221
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