~ne Plus Ultra~ Poem by E Nigma

All Knowledge has an end point, at least for the user of knowledge, all voyages end. Everything Peaks, if I recall correctly (with a little help from my friend google) the very definition of the title is the extreme or perfect point or state, there is always a climax that cannot be stopped and the perfect point end. There's a lot of great sailing analogies in this, and the means that you speak about it not in a reverent manner lines like “Dragging along the ocean, the winds formless physique suggest not an ocean of endless beauty but one that is dangerous and unforgiving, of those who voyage onto its jagged depths, are forced onto it, like the dancefloor of life, you must participate no matter what. All of us are reluctant captain of our own destiny, and the sea they exists on. You sound like a mariner weary of it all, accepting of a fate, that there is an inevitability of it all. The perfection is really just an end point, we cannot escape it, the rosetta stone is built to make language and understanding, but it does not matter for all human understanding is just a pebble on a shoreline of endless questions. Awsome stuff

The ROSETTA STONE is an apt symbol of human ingenuity, in that it was used to decipher the ancient Egyptian language. Of course, that was possible because the same message was also carved in formal Greek and again in informal Greek. This famous artifact is reversed in its significance - instead of an occasion of revelation, it becomes an occasion of maintaining the mystery, keeping silent about the contents - shh. Now we told the real result of an Age of Discovery and it's nothing like the historical record: FOR MEN HAVE VENTURED OUT TO LEARN/WE CAN'T ESCAPE WHAT WE CAN'T SEE. In other words, the Invisible Realm which contains our sensory sphere dwarfs what we call the world. What our senses reveal may be dazzling and wondrous, but it also blinds us to the true dimensions of REALITY. When Joseph Campbell was asked to sum up the message of MYTH, he responded without hesitation: There is is an invisible world beyond the veil of this sensory dimension, and myths give us an inkling, a foreshadowing of this immense other realm which completely transcends all categories of human thought. WOW! That's the wisdom of the ages. It's the Ne Plus Ultra.

I would like to see this ship as one from the Age of Discovery when everything appeared shining and new to the European journeyers. Of course, they were looking for gold to steal, not wonders to treasure and preserve. In the epic poems written about those voyages of the 1600s the European poets had historical figures like Vasco da Gama meeting characters from Greek mythology in the New World. And that immense river in the explored region - not known by its Indian name but called the AMAZON. Right! A modern visionary poet will NOT make this mistake. His vision is cleansed of those errors of the past. So what is revealed to us in NE PLUS ULTRA? WE GUARD TO KEEP/THE SECRETS HIDDEN IN THE DEEP/MYSTERIOUS SEEDS WE'RE SOON TO REAP. Instead of ravaging and stealing, these visionaries will preserve something sacred, not to be disturbed until its time has come. What an enlightened viewpoint, and the self-discipline it entails is further proof of the moral quality of these visionary journeyers. The poem ends very much in minor key - ther is no fanfare, no partying and carousing over some personal victory. Instead.there is a recognition of limitations, some imposed by this larger context the journeyers have entered, other are self-imposed. next box

I like this Latin Phrase as your title. I checked my dict'y to get the exact meaning. It says, THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF ITS TYPE. So. we'll circle back to this. There are a couple of lines at the very center of the poem that pulled me in, namely: SILENT SAILS ARE SLOWLY SLICING/THROUGH THE WINDS FORMLESS PHYSIQUE. This is accomplished with astonishing ease instead of being ripped apart by the winds' power, the ship goes through them to the other side into presumably calmer waters.And the journeyers witness wonders, There is the snake biting its own tail, OUROBOROS, the traditional symbol of time, gobbling up its own resources, and then it is no more. But wait! Those equally wise, see it as a symbol of infinity, never exhausting its resources but forever pouring its abundance into the universe. We are at a kind of still point, both of time and space, in which opposites exist side by side, and when that happens there opposition ceases. It's no wonder the ship moves without hindrance.