Ancient Music Now Poem by Daniel Brick

There are still other songs
which prevail because
their sound comes from the same
deep source as your singing voice,
songs made of fragrance and stench,
earth and water, mud and soul,
from regions below our daylight life,
there where it always Night and Unconscious,
and impulses form and reform without regard
to meaning... Gilgamesh crawled through
this region on his mission. He crawled,
choking with fear, croaking such songs that
are native to dark passages. And he emerged,
whole and sane, in the garden of gods and
goddesses. We have no hopes of reaching
a garden, lacking the primal King's stature.
But we will know the place of passage
by the fear in our souls and the music
faintly reminding us Gilgamesh was
both hero and villain, god and man,
friend and foe. All these things vexed
his mind so he stuffed them deep
in his psyche, where they were transformed
into components of a new being, ultimately
you and me and us. Where we find ancient
songs now is dense, deep, and unforgiving
even of Lord Gilgamesh. But we place
our human mark exactly there, from which
an excellent energy pours forth
into our earthly days and nights.