Holdyn Estes > Recent Status Updates

“For better waters now the little bark
Of my indwelling powers raises her sails,
And leaves behind that sea so cruel and dark.
Now shall I sing that second kingdom given
The soul of man wherein to purge its guilt
And so grow worthy to ascend to Heaven.
Yours am I, sacred Muses! To you I pray.
Here let dead poetry rise once more to life,
And here let sweet Calliope rise and play…”

I’ve enjoyed getting back into Mr. Chernow’s marvelous life of ole Sam

“My Guide and I crossed over and began
To Mount that little know and lightless road
To ascend into the shining world again.
He first, I second, without thought of rest
We climbed the dark until we reached the point
Where a round opening brought in sight the blest
And beauteous shining of the Heavenly cars.
And we walked out once more beneath the Stars.”

How rare a thing to find a mirror of human nature as well crafted as Canto 30

“Who could describe, even words set free
Of metric and rhyme a thousand time retold,
The blood and wounds that now were shown to me!

At grief so deep the tongue must wag in vain;
The language of our sense and memory
Lacks the vocabulary of such pain”

Dante’s imaginings of Hell seem childish in comparison to the descriptions this book contains. God help us

“And when I looked down from their faces, I saw
That each of them was hideously distorted
Between the top of the chest and the lines of the jaw;
For the face was reversed on the neck, and they came on
Backwards, staring backwards at their loins,
For to look before them was forbidden”

“Led by my Guide and his truth, I leave the gall
and go for the sweet apples of delight.
But first I must descend to the center of all.”