The End

My time is Greece is coming to an end. I will be sharing a final blog post with you to wrap up my time here.

But first I want to share something with you.

I had to do a creative project for my Electra class, dealing with a theme of tragedy. I decided to write some poetry about the sacrifice involved in tragedy. In particular I focused on the tragic curse and heroic sacrifice.

Here is what I came up with.

  Death’s Fatality

-Daniel B. Miller

The black stain deepens.

It runs- steady down the hands of time.

Waiting

What curse is this that born of blood by blood must die?

The seed falls from the hands of man and rots the ground.

From it blooms the most bitter of fruits,

And as its father we curse its name.

The sharp pang-

Of knowing

Strikes the heart

From deep within our being,

Screams the knowledge of our humanity.

What flesh is this that struggles against its essence?

What essence is this?

This time-bound nature,

That leaves us crying:

More.

A cold eventuality

Grips our simple minds.

In futility we strain

Against the random inevitability of its coming.

Not might,

Nor Wit,

Nor Cunning,

Can best the hands of death.

In death we find the curse’s consummation,

And in death we find its cure.

“Justice!” the critic cries.

What balm for death is death?

The truth of this justice makes logic a fool,

And baffles the wise man’s musings.

A bloody sacrifice,

Born out of love,

May cleanse the wound of man.

In both death and love we find great power,

But in their coalescence we find redemption.

By these two only,

The pillars of our nature,

Can our voided hearts have wholeness.

We find no more perfect an expression of love than sacrifice.

It speaks the purest of words to our souls:

Forgiveness.

What purity is this?

That won by blood confounds our reason?

In willing death a hero braves and breaks death’s curse of fear.

In death he names:

Love and Justice,

The victors of humanity.

It is this transference,

That shapes the heart of man and makes him pure.

On the mount we find them:

Love, Justice, Death, Forgiveness.

We stare at them,

Eclipsed by their power,

And have peace.