Cretan Episode

Entering, he felt like Theseus,

Remembering his obligations

Awakening his awareness

That he would betray them

The world he came to

Contained an infinity of mazes.

Where, in all this complexity,

Could he ever find the Minotaur?

Inside there was a labyrinth of mirrors,

Where every aspect of his being

Would inescapably be subjected to exposure.

It is the unexpected at whose mercy we are indentured.

Revelation is a short-cut: reasoning’s antithesis;

As much a reflection of shadows as it is of reality,

That the creature he sought was a kind of transcendental passion,

Pure and simple, a denigration of the material.

How does one separate oneself from these images,

These impulses? Smashing mirrors to smithereens

Only locks them in more securely,

Makes them the prisoner of one’s imagination.

Inevitably he had to close doors, lock them

Out of his consciousness, a shuddering denial of insatiable desire,

A knowing, that with every step, such preterhuman

Monstrosity could never be his achievement.