The Ancient World Poem by Mark Doty

The Ancient World

Rating: 3.3


Today the Masons are auctioning
their discarded pomp: a trunk of turbans,
gemmed and ostrich-plumed, and operetta costumes
labeled inside the collar "Potentate"
and "Vizier." Here their chairs, blazoned
with the Masons' sign, huddled
like convalescents, lean against one another

on the grass. In a casket are rhinestoned poles
the hierophants carried in parades;
here's a splendid golden staff some ranking officer waved,
topped with a golden pyramid and a tiny,
inquisitive sphinx. No one's worn this stuff
for years, and it doesn't seem worth buying;
where would we put it? Still,

I want that staff. I used to love
to go to the library -- the smalltown brick refuge
of those with nothing to do, really,
'Carnegie' chiseled on the pediment
above columns that dwarfed an inconsequential street.
Embarrassed to carry the same book past
the water fountain's plaster centaurs

up to the desk again, I'd take
The Wonders of the World to the Reading Room
where Art and Industry met in the mural
on the dome. The room smelled like two decades
before I was born, when the name
carved over the door meant something.
I never read the second section,

"Wonders of the Modern World";
I loved the promise of my father's blueprints,
the unfulfilled turquoise schemes,
but in the real structures
you could hardly imagine a future.
I wanted the density of history,
which I confused with the smell of the book:

Babylon's ziggurat tropical with ferns,
engraved watercourses rippling;
the Colossus of Rhodes balanced
over the harbormouth on his immense ankles.
Athena filled one end of the Parthenon,
in an "artist's reconstruction",
like an adult in a dollhouse.

At Halicarnassus, Mausolus remembered himself
immensely, though in the book
there wasn't even a sketch,
only a picture of huge fragments.
In the pyramid's deep clockworks,
did the narrow tunnels mount toward
the eye of God? That was the year

photos were beamed back from space;
falling asleep I used to repeat a new word
to myself, telemetry, liking the way
it seemed to allude to something storied.
The earth was whorled marble,
at that distance. Even the stuck-on porticoes
and collonades downtown were narrative,

somehow, but the buildings my father engineered
were without stories. All I wanted
was something larger than our ordinary sadness --
greater not in scale but in context,
memorable, true to a proportioned,
subtle form. Last year I knew a student,
a half mad boy who finally opened his arms

with a razor, not because he wanted to die
but because he wanted to design something grand
on his own body. Once he said, When a child
realizes his parents aren't enough,
he turns to architecture.
I think I know what he meant.
Imagine the Masons parading,

one of them, in his splendid get-up,
striding forward with the golden staff,
above his head Cheops' beautiful shape --
a form we cannot separate
from the stories about the form,
even if we hardly know them,
even if it no longer signifies, if it only shines.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Susan Williams 08 February 2016

Yes! ! ! There he goes, taking his reader instantly into his world and we have shared like experiences and sometimes haven't shared them but it doesn't matter because by the end of the poem we will have thoroughly wonderfully have shared with him. Love his talent- -want his talent! ! ! !

19 0 Reply
Michael Gale 27 October 2006

Great poem both artistic and informative on Masonic matters. Ya gotta ten kind sir. God bless all poets-MJG.

1 2 Reply
Pranab K Chakraborty 15 March 2017

...you could hardly imagine a future. I wanted the density of history, which I confused with the smell of the book..... Good write with the essence of poet's inquisitive understandings.

1 0 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 15 March 2017

In a casket! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

0 1 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 15 March 2017

Picture of huge fragments.... thanks for sharing....

0 1 Reply
MAHTAB BANGALEE 25 October 2022

True history never dies; true wisdom never dies! ~

0 0 Reply
Chinedu Dike 28 October 2019

An insightful creation nicely crafted in persuasive poetic expressions with conviction. Thanks for sharing.

0 0 Reply
Bernard F. Asuncion 15 March 2018

Such a wonderful write by Mark Doty👍👍👍

0 0 Reply
Rajnish Manga 17 July 2017

Wonders of the Modern World; I wanted the density of history, which I confused with the smell of the book: //.... Logical and insightful musings about the 'wonders of the modern world' and what they mean to us. Thanks.

1 0 Reply
Ratnakar Mandlik 16 March 2017

wanted the density of history. Wonderful conceptualization. Congrats on modern poet of the Day.

0 1 Reply
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Mark Doty

Mark Doty

Maryville, Tennessee
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