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"Pennies"
by Jan Sand
2008-10-22 09:31:21

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Nowadays their round faces
Strewn the streets like copper suns
In a galaxy of torn paper shreds,
Fragments of things broken and anonymous,
Not worth the stoop for a retrieval.
Some time ago the penny had its day.
It commanded a long paper strip
Across which marshalled
Studs of vari-colored candy dots,
Or a dozen tiny chocolate babies,
Or a handful of yellow- orange kernels of candy corn
Or a minor lollipop.
A community of five coppers
Could produce a cup of coffee
Or fuel a ferry ride
Across New York Bay
Or send one subterranean
On the subway from Bronx Zoo
Past the concrete crystals of Manhattan
To the raucous carnival of the Coney Island Boardwalk.
I still keep two
To be laid against my eyes
As carfare across the Styx.

Poetry

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Emanuel Paparella	2008-10-22 10:13:14
Ah, heading for the Styx! When you do take your two cent carfare over the Styx woth two cents on your eyes, it may be prudent to know the lay of the land first. Besides ancient Greek mythology, you’ll find it in Dante fourth and fifth level of hell with the river Styx running in the middle. In the fourth level you’ll find yourself among the prodigal and the avaricious, those who wasted and lived greedly, the fat cats of the Medici banks and Wall Street who stockpiled wealth, hoarded everything and shared nothing and then asked for a bailout from taxpayers after losing their fortunes. Plutus, the wolf-like demon of wealth dwells there. If you find yourself on a boat, you are, alas, headed for an even worst place, the fifth level where you’ll be among bullies and wrathfuls forever lashing out at each other in anger, they are furious and naked, insulting and slandering with foul vituperative mouths and tearing each other peacemeal with their teeth. Be forewarned, it is not a pretty scene even in one's imagination; the Styx, a pond it is not albeit imaginary, and the creatures there are not toads but people who have abused their the gift of their humanity.


Sand	2008-10-22 15:45:57
I see you're well prepared, Mr.P.


Sand	2008-10-22 18:07:24
Although you, Paparella, seem most enthusiastic over Dante’s elaborate architecture of Hell, the Greeks consigned all their dead to Hades, virtuous or otherwise. Charon’s ferry, requiring carfare, crossed the Greek Styx. There were regions of suffering, but Hades contained the Elysian Fields which were not all that bad a place to spend eternity. It seems strange that you choose to swallow whole the Dante version since Dante was merely a vengeful poet delighting in sending his enemies into eternal punishment and it is most doubtful he ever received an official religious approval for indulging in nasty schadenfreude, whatever the quality of his output. But, of course, he was Italian and that count for much in your tableau.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-10-22 21:49:20
Since you already put him in hell, no need to burn his Divine Comedy...; take two pigeons with one stone. However, with his imagination he was in two other realms besides the realm most dear to your heart.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-10-22 23:59:03
P.S. Actually, come to think of it, there is silver lining in your message on the river Styx and the Elysian Fields of the ancient Greeks (perhaps old dogs can learn new tricks after all) which you rank higher than Dante’s Styx. and it is this: whether you are aware of it or not you have admitted, perhaps for the first time in this forum, that indeed not all historical events are strictly and deterministically progressive, and that some things that come later may be worst than what preceded them, at least in one’s mind. Whether or not Dante objectively speaking is a worthless poet simply because he took an imaginary trip in hell, purgatory and heaven, not to Mr. S.’s particular liking, and deserves his masterpiece to be thrown in the flames of hell, is another story altogether and may indeed indicate cultural some sort of bias against religion or cultural philistinism. I leave that to the judgment of the readers. In any case, were prejudice against religion to trump the correct conception of history, that would diminish the worth of the insight but no matter, better to have pumped into it that never to have entertained it at all. We can perhaps construe it as the gradual thawing of a rigid ideologically driven mind petrified in “inevitable progress.” Congratulations!


Emanuel Paparella	2008-10-23 00:22:52
Oh, by the way, there is something you need to correct in your poem a.s.a.p. if your dream of reaching the Elysian Fields is ever to come true. Charon, the old ferry man, only takes the souls across the Styx that are buried properly. Unfortunately the proper burial is not two pennies on one’s eyes but a coin (an obol) in one’s mouth. You may wish to alter your living will or you may find yourself in Dante’s Styx instead.


Sand	2008-10-23 03:11:53
There you go again casting literature to the flames if I refer to other sources. It really is a disreputable habit not worthy of anybody interested in literature. I was aware of the obol bit but times change, even in Hades. These days with the dollar declining it would probably be wise to use euros. But the poem was nostalgia about pennies and, although you seem unfamiliar with literary traditions, poetic license has its uses.


bohdan	2008-10-23 10:14:45
nice poem, liked it. brought the time to mind.


Sand	2008-10-23 13:58:32
Thanks. I try. Sometimes it works.


Emanuel Paparella	2008-10-23 20:55:07
Not to worry. Many today haven't the foggiest about the Styx and Charon, so not only they have not noticed your "poetic licence" but they have also not notices your ignorance of Greek mythology, not to speak of Dante and the Catholic Church.


Sand	2008-10-24 06:07:27
I knew, Paparella, that anyone liking my poetry would irk you so much you couldn't miss an opportunity to slime me again for no more substance than your basic ignorance of the reason poetry is written.