…but I have zero memory of doing so. In fact, when I found the paper it was written on, I immediately did some searching to see if I’d copied it from somewhere. Apparently not, at least according to Google.
I think I wrote it — if I wrote it — in college, not long after reading The Bacchae. I can’t think of a time before or since when I’ve been inclined to use the word “thyrsus.” I don’t think it’s, like, great or anything, but I reproduce it here for curiosity’s sake, and apologize to any accountants reading this for my slur on your profession:
Wise Champagne
And who will give me wise champagne, a Bacchus-regulator,
Taming the Maenads’ fury with reason’s hand?
Supply the genius without aftermath,
God-touch sans bloody hands and aching head?
I would cultivate that rarer vine,
Seek out the mildest soil and kindest sun,
Read tax returns over the growing shoots,
Hire CPAs to tread the season’s vintage.
But passion would creep in, all uninvited,
Shake his thyrsus and cry, “Begin the dance!”
…Anyone else, have you ever run across a piece of writing that you cannot for the life of you remember having written?
Lorna
February 21, 2008 at 2:48 pmI can honestly say I go back to quite a bit of my older work…like my senior year in high school and I am surprised at the words I constructed to illustrate how I was feeling in my head. Often times I scratch my head saying “Wow, I felt that and actually articulated it like that? …when did I write this?” PS I just finished reading “Empress of the World,” and though I’m usually into poetry it (and a few other things that have occurred in my life) have flung me back into my prose interest which I had long stored in the pig shaped cookie jar on top of my fridge. Thank you so much for helping me open that door. I am in awe of you.
Sara
February 21, 2008 at 6:10 pmHey, Lorna, thank you so much!
I’m honored to have helped rekindle your interest in prose. :)