Relative To Causal Initiative Paradox - After Auden - Breughel Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

Was Auden right to write Art was not wrong -
on canvas or through written word, to state
all little matters outside isolate
fate which squeezes, seizes in its tong
souls who - as Gray said - from madding throng
scarce ventured out, immune to stale debate
on cause, effect, affecting their estate.

The Old Masters, however, understood
human fragility, how we replace
extraordinary events, prefer the commonplace where we feel strong within our element. As then, all mark life-cycles but our waiting
is not breath 'taking' bait abating. Miracles few see
as part and parcel of modernity,
while often sibling rivalry's thin ice-skating
along the dotted line society
dictates for thinking as they 'ought to should.'
We should 'bear' in mind that life expectancy
was nearer forty (women thirty - childbirth took its toll) -
than three score years and ten, today's retirement age
when we have filled our work résumés page
as martyrs to global capitalistic cause.

Everywhere in some corner, or untidy spot,
dogs go on with their doggy life and transvestite coarse
scratches sin_nocent up a gum tree.

Although in Breughel's Icarus, everything turns away
quite leisurely from the disaster, though plowman may
have heard brash splash, observed, forsaken cry,
for him it was unknown as failure. Sun shone,
as always, on white legs disappearing into green
water; while some asea might see
something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
importance seemed some port of call. All sailed calmly on.

Though siren songs of progress spur Man higher,
like Icarus, beware ambitions' fire!

Conservatives of every hue
advance that common caveat -
whenever faced with something new
they seldom fail to smell a rat.
They therefore counsel caution due
before attempting this or that,
implying that inventions new, -
to wit: all that is not old-hat, -
both heresy and threat seems too.
You want a turn? Go out and bat!
Youth to youth true, what you must... do!
Don't wait too late. When old, cold, fat,
bold attitudes off cue, askew,
too often are ignored. Observe that
what unimportant seemed to minds foreclosed,
too soon proves more essential than supposed
when to time's acid test exposed.

Paradox: coincidence or causal link, tranposed
to life's known range exchanges juxtaposed.
Change prone population's predisposed
to self-seclusion, strange pose opposed,
scar[c]e leap from sheep-like shelf life sleep self-imposed,
discover overnight time-worn customs deposed.

Sure, though to safety's shore returned his sire,
Daedalus' fate, forgot by most, was dire.

Musee des Beaux Arts Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully
along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.

In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the plowman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.

(7 March 2012)