Ravenna - Crimson Sunrise Poem by Martha Sherwood

Yesterday I found myself wanting to write a piece synthesizing a cluster of observations and ideas that are related in my mind, and which are a source of personal inspiration. I have tried, and failed, to digest them into a linear piece of English prose that convinces anyone. I imagined myself expressing them in Old English poetry, to a person living in 1000 AD, and fancied (although this is probably wishful thinking) that he would have a better grasp of my message than a modern academic audience.
My central idea involves a resonance between the years 535,1315 and 1815 created by stupendous volcanic eruptions that cause abrupt global cooling, massive mortality and disruption of human society, followed, after a significant time lag, by reorganization according to new principles. I wanted to look at the pattern, and its ramifications, from the perspectives of 535,1315,1815 and 2015.
The complexity of this framework defies linear organization. Trying to fit an exposition into an academic mold would result in a tome of unwieldy proportions, unlikely to be consulted, whose interrelated pieces were too far removed from each other to interact in the mind of the reader. To some extent that difficulty can be overcome by having the piece in electronic format and using a search engine, but search engines are extremely literal and fail to uncover metaphors. When I use a search engine, I only find what I am looking for. When I allow my human brain to range over the same texts, I see things I wasn’t looking for, some potentially of great significance.