Resurrecting Icarus
Resurrecting Icarus
or
A Modern Moral Fable
by
Rick Folker
Kansas City, Mo
Daedalus claimed the sky,
Built a labyrinth from which
Theseus could fly
...
Minos enraged, entombed the
Treacherous Daedalus in a tower
No sky could aide the architect’s power
On high
No land, no sea
Gave comfort to the builder's sigh
Would he hopeless entreat the silent sky
Or conquer it within, at least, in his mind’s eye?
...
Yet, the great artificer fashioned
An ingenious answer to the Minoan king;
Feathers of wax resembling wings
His craft and his son could now be free
To dream
Where only untamed zephyrs and partridges sing
Where high aloft they would transcend
Minos, Ariadne, Theseus
And Meandering rivers of Cretan men
...
But hubris, not modesty, carved the Icarian path
Daedalus, proud Daedalus, helpless
To tame the youth's spirit, and soften
The gods' wrath
And so Icarus unrestrained
Tried, like Prometheus, to lay claim
To the fire, that only Olympians retain
And thus fell Icarus to Daedalus and
The Nereids' plain
...
Thus leaves us wondering, like hapless sages through the ages,
"Would he rise again?"
Or would his brilliant feathers melt into the smouldering shame?
Or would the Phoenix sort and gather the remnants that remain
And take up another more hopeful god's refrain:
'The surviving remnant will bring forth
new roots below and fruits above; for you have restored the dignity my Icarus has duly slain”
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