Gospel Animari Options

[RC James]

Abelard’s classrooms hummed with insight,
he introduced logic seductively,
and illumined charges of revision.

(Respondet triplici, rerum condiciones,
Verbal per curiositatem.)

Walking the sodden streets, virgin thoughts
bounded beside him.
Devoted to the altar of God and son, renewed,
he undid the racky syllabus grown musty.

Heloise, niece of a lord restraining her thoughts,
whispered to her classmates wanting changes.

(Novos mundos oculos habuit,
Sensum, linguis loquentur novis.)

She released will o`the wisp
from papers of antiquated hubris
and looked for a guide, a teacher,
who espoused possibility in all,
any willing man, woman immortal , entire.

Only a solitary saint testing women's waters
witnessed her abrupt conversion in his lecture,
when, at the podium, she saw the half of herself
she thought she'd never find, shining, fast, in his eyes.

(Ratione deseritur, in faciem illius,
Sive ex passione apprehendens.)

Clarity spoke to both; beyond breath,
they forsook all to sigh's effusion,
love streamed agua pura freshets
lucid as words that hold their own rain.

(Tenebris cito secuta sunt confusi et gaudium.)



(1. Answers came on different levels, different situations
through verbal explorations.

2. Her eyes held new worlds, new understanding,
new languages.

3. Logic deserted him in face of her beauty
passion took hold.

4. Darkness quickly followed the embarrassment of joy.)

[Psyche]

Hi Richard,
Good to find you posting here again. Where has everybody gone? I myself have reduced my visits to a couple of times a week, mainly because I feel lonely when nobody's around.

I like your poem about Abelard, indeed an interesting medieval Theologian and Philosopher, who got himself into lots of trouble for using logic or reason to interpret matters of faith, and so on. Neither was it looked upon kindly, by the more powerful theologians of his time, to use the thoughts of "pagan" philosophers such as Aristotle, to add credibility to Christian doctrine of the time.
Did you know that even St. Thomas Aquinas was threatened for writing about Plato and Aristotle? He eventually died of depression. Some centuries later, he was pronounced a saint.

I have no nits for your poem, except to say that I hope there will be at least another follow-up, hinted at by the last Latin phrase, which you translated in point 4 below. I know what Heloise's father ordered done to him (by mercenaries) but won't mention it here, since it might be a spoiler for some. Dunno...

4. Darkness quickly followed the embarrassment of joy.

Thanks so much for sharing this poem with us,
Syl