“Riposte to Ode” – Michael Homolka
by richibi
“Horace“
______
It isn’t like that Horace Life stresses us out
However many hundreds of decades later we’re told
to welcome anxiety is beneficial
and to quote honor our imperfections
You’ve got the Adriatic Sea We’ve got what
the Finger Lakes? Not quite as conducive
to worrying the infinite question so we worry
about other things equities statistics
I’m not really a wine man either
not in the unmixed sense where Alcibiades
might barge in any moment and out-naked us all
I’m an American so I prefer pig iron
Wildflowers abound somewhere I’m sure
I don’t know anything about flowers though
Few of us in the cities follow them
the way you seem to as if tracking currencies
But to speak to your point about an actual
battlefront approaching Main Street who knows?
Maybe we would resort to hookers and crack
per your suggestion I can’t say Horace I wish I could
______________
which “Ode” remains a mystery, so
one should suppose Michael Homolka
is “ripost[ing]” to Horace’s entire body
of odes, he wrote four books of them,
23 – 11 B.C.E., during the time of
Augustus
I found the Odes too steeped in
Roman and mythological arcana to
follow their uneasy referents, too
esoteric, I thought, to even look
them up, seems Michael Homolka
thought the same
but his “Ars Poetica“, if you’ll pardon
the expression, spoke directly to my
heart, “On style“, “On metre“, on
“How to be a good poet“, for
instance, topics I find irresistible
you’ll note that whereas I’ve used
commas ever to indicate pauses
in what I write, Homolka uses
spaces, if you’ll allow me that,
perhaps immodest, conjunction,
you’ll find these in his original
copy, WordPress won’t allow me
that, click here for that original
copy
he also allows himself question
marks, something I never do
go figure
you’ll also note his dramatic
monologue, my favourite, if
you haven’t already done so
Richard
psst: “None knows the reason why this curse
Was sent on him, this love of making verse.” – “Ars Poetica“, line 470
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