The Quest For Self-Knowledge

Oh, Apollo,* son of Zeus, How could, a simple man as I, your divine command- to know myself- Will ever be able to realize When Fruitless, so far, any efforts of mine have turned out to be, Even though- ashamed I am to confess- decades many have already passed, Wandering on these planes of oblivion without any Tangible answers whatsoever to produce? I swear to you, divine Apollo, that All this time I have been waiting for a ray of your light to come, A sign, on your part, to guide me out of the labyrinth of ignorance, onto the Road of understanding and to direct me, your enigmatic maxim Correctly to decipher. Tell me, oh God of poetry, Is there a secret way to lead me into the knowledge of myself? A mystic experience of some sort, perchance? An epiphany that the truth to me could be revealed Or The quest for knowledge of me should be, perhaps, the result of My doing? Interpreting your silence My guess, Oh God of eloquence, your answer would rather be the latter For If the former was true, till now, your revelation to me you would have Made known. Believe me, oh God of prophecy, Innumerable times have I tried to reach the depths of my being, The innermost part of my soul, Searching the answer there and only there to find But Still, my efforts a constant failure were and are, Thus Ignorant I still remain. Could you, Oh God of light, tell me what is the cause of my failure? Is it because: My soul’s eye have I blinded, by trying constantly into the phenomena, the Answer to find? That only through others I tried myself to know? That in dialogue had I never with myself really engaged? That honest enough was I not with me the truth to tell? That courage I never had to admit my shortcomings? That my trespasses so easily forgave while onto others constantly All my faults projected? YES, now clearly I see the errors I have made, The errors that prevented me from the very truth of myself to know: The one, that under the appearances, You very well have hidden, Deep, within the innermost part of my being, where the Universal Truth Since my birth resides. Oh, Holy One, now unmistakably I start to realize, You are the reason for my being, the Alpha and Omega of my life, Nothing could ever happen as it should If With your celestial Will, I fail to harmonize! © Demetrios Trifiatis 05 December 2020 - Apollo, son of Zeus and Leto! The sun God and God of fine arts, music, prophecy, poetry, and eloquence! Over the entrance of Apollo’s most famous temple in Delphi, it was written “ YOU EXIST” meaning the only thing Man knows about God is that GOD EXISTS, but in order for Man to acquire wisdom to know God, he had first to follow Apollo’s command to Man which was “ Know Thyself.”