Both Daniels (For The Brick, Not The Tin Man) Poem by Frank Avon

'It's good to have that other self available.'

* * * * *

Daniel in the fiery furnace,
Daniel in the lions' den:
they both are one Daniel,
one and the same.

Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar,
Daniel and Belshazzar,
Daniel and Darius,
they all are one Daniel.

Daniel of the tales,
poetic and mythic;
Daniel of the visions,
prophetic and apocalyptic -

ah, yes, they are all one
Daniel, one and the same.
I love all those Daniels,
every one of them speaks for me.

* * * * *

Look into your mirror:
the Daniel that you see
is merely a shadow
of the one you want to be.

Look into your soul,
the shadow lurking there
and the persona you seem
to be: daimon and seraph

(just like Milton's Satan
and Michael his archangel,
both speak with Milton's voice,
in the same iambic pentameter)

are selves of many selves
you are or may become -
upstart and ole boy,
ruler and roustabout,

patriot and traitor,
revolutionary and king -
selves of many selves
you are or may become.

The finite mind's a fragment,
and it's fragmented again;
the Infinite, whole
but lost in its finite frame:

the occasional traveler,
the poet after his death,
Daniel and that Other Daniel,
all fragments of the whole.

Hold onto all these fragments,
finite though they be,
clasp them to your chest,
for all of you is Me.