Erato Muse of Poetry

1. Uninvited you come, oh Erato*, you muse of poetry, the Majority of the times, Knocking at my soul’s door at any given moment Insisting on letting you in, your message to deliver Disregarding at what state my soul is and if she could With your request, comply 2. Oh, Muse of poetry, when with my soul’s inspiration You are flirting all the time Whispering in her ears words of wisdom, coming From your divine essence My soul, mesmerized, tries the words of wisdom, Lingering in her depths, again to remember** 3. A difficult task it is; indeed, I admit, For the language of heavens that my soul, once Knew very well, now she has forgotten** Because of her association with her mortal body For that reason, oh divine muse, Be patient with her and give her just A little more time 4. The time that my soul needs, divine muse, to learn Or rather to remember How to talk and to express herself in writing the way You would like: In accordance with the universe’s harmony and Its eternal laws 5. When this blessed hour comes, my soul able Would be, poems to compose But Her writings, her creations, and her poetic epics, The work of you would be, oh muse, No credit would, my soul, claim For She knows very well that only an instrument she is, Oh muse, into your godly embrace, Just to be used according to your desire Because only you, oh muse of poetry, know How The universe’s poetic language should be used And how, in verse, it has to be Delivered! © Demetrios Trifiatis 30 SEPTEMBER 2014 * Erato, one of the nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (memory ). She is the Muse of lyric poetry, love poetry, and marriage songs. ** Socrates, Greek philosopher 469-399, believed that the soul knows the truth but because of her association with the body, after her incarnation, she forgets therefore what we call learning is, in reality, a process of remembering as it is indicated also by the name of Erato’s mother, Mnemosyne, (memory). A poet should always follow Erato’s instructions that come in the form of inspiration, in order to reach the desired result. This is because Erato’s knowledge is unadulterated for it is divine!