THE FIRST MUSE - POEM

Frontpiece to Vico's Scienza nuova ( 1725)

                                                                                   

The First Muse

 

In the occult machinations of the heart,

There almost floating haphazardly out on the horizon,

Out from the depths of the heart’s chamber

I can see all the old arch infrastructure.

 

After over half a century’s turning…

You’d imagine to have some kind of handle on it!

But all you can perceive are the patterns;

Triads, trilogies and triptychs along with quads and quartets.

 

The crazed mathematics of Pythagoras,

All that you initially ran from in your schooling

Comes back now to haunt you with her ruling.

 

There she stands, Miss Murphy, appearing before you!

The polished image of the first Muse.

You were eight, and and all around you there was symmetry.