Hymn To Minerva Poem by Emmanuel George Cefai

No incense do I have to offer, this
Night!

No palms no wreaths no flowers,
This night!

No prayers of a crowd offered
To-night!

But my lips uttered in fear prayer
To-night!

Wisdom, wisdom I need, I man
Of solitude, thrown
Alone into the turbulence of earth:
Wisdom I need
To-night!

Ah! bring me to the fount of wisdom!
I saw a white light descend
That I saw not before:
And being Poet-Seer, philosopher,
I knew that was Minerva.

I knew of my salvation in that night.

To you kind goddess, I, with
Empty hands
What will I dedicate
By Dawn herself, her beauty?

You ask me how:
How ardent and presumptuous I
To offer Dawn
To offer what is not mine:
Ah! wait!
For I am Poet-Seer, and
The Poet-Seer has Earth for him
And to him Earth calls master
And calls Lord:
For when his lyre he,
The Poet-Seer strings,
The Earth will in her visceral
Tremble and joy as the lyre
Wills!

Therefore let me as Poet-Seer
Minerva,
offer Earth and Dawn
To you
And the new Day
That Earth be blessed by you,
That Earth embark on a new way,
A better way,
My chant, my verse,
To-night,
Great Minerva hear:
And hearing, grant
My prayer on behalf of Earth:
This Earth I am of,
This Earth I love so, my goddess.