Best Ptolemy Poems
As I paddled the river Nile
I met a monstrous crocodile.
She smiled at me enticingly.
I smiled deferentially.
Through large white teeth to me she said,
"I want you in my river bed."
"We are not acquainted enough
for such intimate, tasteless stuff,"
I cried. A hippopotamus
opined, "Hey, we're amphibious.
We're inclined to romp through marshes;
come, let's crush some reedy rushes."
I paddled hard away. The Nile
now swirled by rapidly awhile
to the sea. There where its two brinks
grow apart it flows past a sphinx
who lies prone and thinks endlessly
deep thoughts about eternity.
For eons and eons his mind
thought thoughts about how to unbind
gravity from mentality
throughout universality,
that we might freely float;
no more need to paddle my boat.
Unfortunately, he has no gumption
to follow his least assumption;
but we do chat on fluently
of, to wit, stuff way beyond me
like hieroglyphic-ally writ
papyri. When he will not quit
I wander alone to a tomb
where lies Cleopatra, of whom
each schoolgirl knows; how her last gasp
came as she clasped to breast her asp.
Grasp that story's significance
twixt geometry class and dance.
Whilst she patronymic-ally
reigned, a most royal Ptolemy;
she told Marc, "My new last 'nym' now'll
be 'Anthony'." This, post her roll
out, quite nude, from Julius' rug.
His offer of sex met her mere shrug.
I stood amid a pyramid
or three and pondered where they hid,
these pharaohs, all their treasury.
Was power or mere pleasury
their true architectural plan?
To ever tell, no pharaoh can.
These writs I write as my boat drifts
midst original hieroglyphs
through the Mediterranean.
I don't need a librarian
to see, no sociology
compares to Egyptology.
Categories:
ptolemy, adventure, funny, me, me,
Form:
Light Verse
star gaze
a winged white horse
flies across the northern sky
lovers worldwide look in wonder
just as Ptolemy did
Jack Horne for Nette’s Pen a Pensee contest, 1st July
Categories:
ptolemy, romance,
Form:
Verse
Continuation from previous poem
We reached the footer of a castle steep,
Seven times by walls encircled very tall,
Defended by a river hard to leap.
We overpassed it as hard ground at all;
Through seven doors I entered with these wise:
We reached a fresh green lawn nice to enthrall.
There were people with old and severe eyes
Whose appearance exuded mighty guide:
They seldom spoke, had voices with sweet rise.
We were turned out then walking far outside,
In open terrain, tall and full of light,
Such as the view of all was just implied.
There straight on, staying over the green bright,
The wonderful souls I was clearly shown
That seeing them in me I feel delight.
I saw Elettra with mates not alone,
Hector and Aeneas were there,
Caesar armed, with eyes of rapacious tone.
I saw Camilla and Pantasilea in pair;
On other side I saw the Latin king
With child Lavinia sat on a chair.
Bruto who Tarquinio pushed out bring,
Lucrets, July, Marsia and Cornelia;
And saw Saladin to solitude cling.
After I elevated a bit more my cilia
I saw sat the master and those who know
Philosophers’ memorabilia.
All him admire, just all is honor grow:
I then saw Socratis and Plato here,
Who well closer to him than others stow;
Democritus, whose world is random mere,
Diogenes, Anaxogoras and Thales then
Empedocles, Heraclitus , Zenon were;
And the good collector I saw when
Dioscoris was; and Orpheus I saw,
Tulio, Lino , Seneca moral been;
Euclid geometric, Ptolemy raw,
Hippocrat, Avicen, Galien too,
Averois, who the great comment foresaw.
I cannot fully tell of all just through,
But the full theme is pushing me so long,
That many times my word becomes not true.
The group of six is now of two less strong:
Another way is choosing my guide bright
Out of the quiet air, to trembling wrong.
And I am going where there is no light.
Categories:
ptolemy, fantasy,
Form:
Terza Rima
Ended is my week to make Satan smile
The weather forecast calls for sun all day
My camping gear sits in an unpacked pile
As, of course, pouring rain has come this way
I was headed outside to cleanse my soul
By camping out under open blue skies
Although my good plans may have come undone
I will not change my goal
This win the devil shall not realize
As I will engage in rainy day fun
I start a fire in my fireplace
Spread the down sleeping bag across the floor
With marshmallows and chocolates in place
I devour some of my campout smores
I digest my book on astronomy
Learning the position of all the stars
Getting prepared for the next night that clears
Reading Ptolemy
Find out exactly how to locate Mars
Gain the intelligence to last for years
Rain will not compound this week’s misery
Beelzebub shall not have his will today
I have learned from my long past history
Not to let some rain get into my way
My fingers will make love to the guitar
Sitting right here on my living room floor
Even though I may not be outside now
I know what good times are
As I throw on a couple of logs more
And I still cleanse my tired soul somehow
Categories:
ptolemy, happiness, rain, may, rain,
Form:
Ode
Like seraphim whose wings unfold,
your majesty goes not untold!
As the light of your brilliant face
moves in me all of time and space;
as planets orbit heaven's Sun
and encircle it one by one;
so, too, am I caught in your sway,
enrapt with you from day to day.
The hosts of God bring attention,
with horns of holy dimension,
and trumpet your great might whereof
they blast their praise from up above.
You are The Incarnation
who sparks this cosmos's causation,
through which effects exist from laws,
in worship to cosmic First Cause:
in Latin, “Primum Mobile,”—
“first mover” of Ptolemy,
which answers Infinite Regress
from the pre-Socratics' egress.
Categories:
ptolemy, god, imagery, inspirational, metaphor,
Form:
Verse
in Florence, Italy,
the Museo Galileo
houses the middle finger of
Galileo Galilei---
enclosed in a glass case &
sticking upright at the sky,
it not-so-subtly signifies
the wonder that came in
insisting that the sky did not
abide by the dogmatic assertions
made in the big fat work of fiction---
instead,
following in the footsteps of
Philolaus, Heraclides Ponticus,
Aristarchus of Samos, Hypatia,
Ptolemy & Copernicus,
Mr. Galilei defended the idea that
this little rock we all reside on,
revolved around the sun &
not the other way around, as the
cunning catholic church
wanted us all to believe---
and though he was found
by the Inquisition to be
“suspect of heresy,”
forced to recant all that
he had said &
afterward was forced into house arrest
for the remainder of his day
on the condition that he would
read the psalms specific to him being a
bad little boy,
he is regarded as “the father of
modern science, physics & astronomy” &
is revered by anyone who seeks truth
through rigorous experiment &
the accumulation of evidence.
Categories:
ptolemy, life,
Form:
Free verse
Cleopatra ruler
Captivating beauty
Collected four husband
Caesar was her lover
Claimed Caesarion son
Crucial Roman nation
Chose Mark Antony last
10/21/2020
Cleopatra VII Philopator (Koine Greek: ??e?p?t?a F???p?t??, Kleopátra Philopátor;[5] 69 – 10 or 12 August 30 BC)[note 2] was the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt.
Cleopatra's husbands were (in chronological order)
1. Ptolemy XIII - he drowned in 47 BC
2. Ptolemy XIV - he was allegedly poisoned in c. 44 BC
3. Julius Caesar - he was assassinated in Rome in 44 BC
4. Mark Antony - he committed a suicide following a crucial defeat from Octavian in 31 BC
Categories:
ptolemy, history,
Form:
Verse
verse
High in the sky, Beehive Cluster.
Nebulous mass, to quote Ptolemy
shines within the breast of Cancer.
An astronomer's anomaly -
"twinkle, twinkle little star"
what genius your light inspires.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beehive_Cluster
written 27 April 2016
Categories:
ptolemy, allusion, stars,
Form:
Verse
At the rise of the sun-
I saw a flower stretch long,
Her vein glows,
And her barge of charms violently grows.
Shiny is the face
That allures Antony to its rays.
For her juicy nectar,
Pests gather.
In the community of her peers-
Her beauty is their fears.
As her skin’s opulence-
Transcends the rainbows
Caesar ticks for her intelligence,
Ptolemy sighs for her magnificence.
Like stars her grandness brightens
And infinitely heightens
Ramses II in his stance saw none,
Even Olympus in it majesty harboured none.
A type known to caterpillars,
But a kind kept from locusts.
Season of Olympus’ gate.
Categories:
ptolemy, beauty, love, romance,
Form:
Rhyme
Cleopatra , Queen of Egypt , feasting on Quails
and honeycakes,dressed in glorious splendour.
She minted new coins with her picture on them
"Mark them Cleopatra Philopater, after the King!"
Garlands of flowers , decorated in gold ,luxurious
purple silk, rooms perfumed in roses, celebrates
her victory with the Roman leader , Julius Caesar.
Bald as an egg and old enough to be her father.
Few women could resist his sexiness + charms.
Her brother ,Ptolemy thought not and surrounded
Alexandria with a sqad of twenty thousand troops.
Months went by ,Caesars Roman army re-gained
control........Ptolemy Xlll , weighed down by his suit
of golden armour drowned in the waters of the Nile.
In Alexandria she put his golden armour on display.
Categories:
ptolemy, education, history, people,
Form:
Verse
Our parent galaxy Milky Way
has a nebula giving birth
to stars neath ‘baby blanket’ array
that’s one of the closest to Earth
of astral-forming regions around—
Rho Ophiuchi Complex Cloud,
named for the bright stellar body found
in its picturesque dusty shroud.
The colorful image multi-hued
within Ophiuchus was spied,
a constellation in south skies viewed
to the Greek Asclepius tied,
in mythology as healer known
whose medicines cured afflictions,
thus among stars ‘serpent bearer’ shown
holding a snake in depictions.
Often as symbol of evil used,
albeit fertility too,
with remedies this serpent’s infused
in lore from which Ptolemy drew.
The Complex three nebulae contains,
emission, reflection, and dark,
with fourteen light-years across domains
where myriad starlets embark.
Varied wavelengths are captured in tints
of infrared made seeable
via NASA’s WISE or wide-field glints
celestially agreeable.
Indeed there are countless treasure troves
as yet undiscovered in space
of cosmic coves and galactic groves
for telescope gazers to trace.
Yet where but our planetary home
in this Goldilocks favored place
under a lapis lazuli dome
can we dwell in nature’s embrace?
~ Harley White
* * * * * * * * *
Inspiration from articles and image~ The Rho Ophiuchi Cloud Complex, with image taken with NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Explorer, or WISE.
Categories:
ptolemy, beauty, creation, earth, mythology,
Form:
Ekphrasis
Awesome Pegasus appears in the Northern Hemisphere
as a beautiful winged horse that Greek gods adored;
what Ptolemy saw was something he wanted to share.
When he discovered it, he gladly gave it a horse's name:
nothing else came to his mythical mind other than that;
imagine him staring at it and drawing its stirring image!
Stand beneath it on the longest night of summer,
its tiny stars dazzle more than white diamonds;
it's the perfect night for lovers to breathe warm air!
I happen to spot Pegasus while searching for answers,
how this breathtaking universe came to be from nothing;
it hypnotized me with its twinkles if they were dancers!
Written on 4/17/2017
Categories:
ptolemy, beauty, emotions, joy, june,
Form:
Terza Rima
Love you're
the first
lighthouse
with a bright beacon
that shines across
this ocean
Carved into foundations
chiseled within emotions
plastered covered feelings
etched in stone
Climbing each step
a winding staircase
one skyscraper
heading towards
the Heaven's
A lofty
tower built
standing tallest
rising from
out of the ground
one kingdom
White stone faced
marble blocks
cemented with
lead mortar
bonded together
Upon the Cupola
a great
fire burns
lighting across,
the ocean
warmly carrying
for miles
one curved
mirrored soul
searching waters
Lights into
a hot beam
setting this ship
on passions fire
desire in this ocean
swimming remains
the wonder
of you
A torso
of one woman
living in
the heart
Beating drums
within this deep
blue sea
trembles hotly
ablaze on fire
Loving until
the end
of time
sealed with
800 hundred
gold kisses
a wonderful treasure
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
lighthouse of Alexander one wonder
800 TALENTS equal to 3 million in today's money to build
cupola is where the light burned
stories were told that the light could burn approaching ships
first lighthouse a skyscraper
Ptolemy 11 carved his inscription into the foundations then covered it with plaster
built with marble stone faced blocks bedded in lead plaster
a large curved mirror of polished bronze projected the fires light into a beam also said to be a weapon when concentrated with the sun setting ships ablaze some distance away
could also be used as a mirror that magnified images in the distance
Categories:
ptolemy, romance,
Form:
Free verse
Great is the battle, small the victory
when all that is won is lost to mankind -
in this war of worlds its great casualty
is the fallen consciousness in our mind.
From spear tip and arrowhead to smart bomb
or Ptolemy to Hubble looking glass,
Luxor hieroglyphs to CD Rom -
from the Bronze to Silicon Age we pass.
Primeval footprint, genetic blueprint,
sandstone castles under canyons of steel -
gone are the Caesars and Pharaohs extinct
and there’s a cautionary tale so real.
Civilisations that with hubris act
fall a ruin, a remnant, an artifact.
Written: August 2004
Categories:
ptolemy, culture, humanity, perspective, world,
Form:
Sonnet
To Babylonians, Ptolemy (and me),
The night sky was a glittering sea.
They called them all stars
But (including Mars)
These “observers” were startled to see…
That charting their heavenly courses
And imagining bears, crabs and horses
They moved thru the seasons
But for confounding reasons
Some obeyed differing forces.
They called them “Wandering Stars”.
(We know planets are now what they are.)
But since we conquered the moon,
Who’d have thought that so soon,
From THEIR faces we'd look back at ours.
So transmission lag notwithstanding,
The space craft survived thru its landing,
But a plan to research
From an aerial perch
Was at one time beyond understanding.
Over six years a drone flight was planned.
Could it take off and land on command?
NASA asked it to fly
And did it comply?
TODAY HISTORY WITNESSED FIRSTHAND!
wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenuity_(helicopter)
Categories:
ptolemy, flying, history, planet, sky,
Form:
Limerick