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March 25, 2024

Not of Byzantium

By Eric Robert Nolan

Not of Byzantium

Awakening at one AM after dreaming
not of Byzantium,
not of Babylon, but better --
not Shangri-La, but shaded limb --
the pine I climbed when I was nine.

No Acropolis, only
fallow farm and rising sun.
Across, a distant treeline
ascends to render Athens'
Parthenon prosaic.

Exceeding empires, exceeding
even Elysium, is
this slumber's ordinary boyhood field.






Article © Eric Robert Nolan. All rights reserved.
Published on 2020-04-20
Image(s) are public domain.
2 Reader Comments
Harris
04/20/2020
06:45:39 PM
Prince of the apple towns indeed, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas. We can't return we can only dream of what we left behind. Vivid, I can very much identify with the theme here.
Eric Robert Nolan
04/20/2020
11:26:21 PM
I am so glad that you liked it, Harris!
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