Orpheus In The Night Poem by Daniel Brick

(A Friend's Remembrance)

Memory, that blessed goddess, helps us
to conquer time and make the past live
again in the present whenever we summon
her power of recovery. How fresh still are
those distant days and nights when Orpheus
and I, two callow youths who felt themselves
immortal, joined the doomed Argonauts.
How we swelled with pride when Jason said
to us before the whole crew, "Neither of you
will wield an oar against the resistant waves
if we are stalled. Instead you will raise
your lyres and lift our spirits, as your voices
cut through the sluggish air to the hearing
of the gods, who may grant us fair winds." Oh, how
proud we were of Jason's high regard! And in response
Orpheus sang epic verse of the primal war of gods
and giants and Zeus's glorious victory...
My friend and I have been blessed by our skill
in song and verse. Orpheus's eloquence swayed
the iron will of the Lord of the Underworld,
but that victory was bitter in its aftermath.
And now we sing, if we sing at all, in a minor key.
And our listeners seem to appreciate an art that
helps them carry their sorrow-load. And so it is
that we take sad themes and shelter them
in nocturnal music. Orpheus is as always our leader
and we follow him into dark realms of sorrow.
"She lives every night for a few hours in my sleep, "
he tells me in confidence. "She does not speak and
I never see her whole form. Often I am aware only
of her listening. My friend, lately I have been
exploring the mixed condition of half-sleep and
half-wakefulness. Which will prevail? Have I
any control? Often I cannot hold the balance and
I tumble deep into the Night Realm, and all is
oblivion. But I sense I am getting stronger,
and shafts of the Day Realm shoot past me and
illuminate the depths. And Day and Night are equally
benign." When Orpheus spoke these words to me,
I saw many birds alight in tree branches, cock
their heads to the side and listen intently.
Perhaps the gods are listening too and may send
a blessing to Orpheus, that will spill into our lives too.