14 Comments
User's avatar
Ken Gordon's avatar

I would like to draw your attention to "The Many Lives of Moses Hadas," a superlative essay Rachel Hadas wrote about her father, the classics professor (and one of the figures in the sonnet above): https://magazine.columbia.edu/article/many-lives-moses-hadas

Paul Drexler's avatar

I was thinking along the same lines. He’s well worth reading on many topics.

Stourley Kracklite's avatar

I have his Ancilla to classical reading. 👌

Sven Birkerts's avatar

Secret until now. !

Ken Gordon's avatar

The jig is up!

Tina Beattie's avatar

This for me has echoes of my favourite poem - Charles Causley’s Eden Rock. As an ageing orphan I keep that poem framed on my desk with a photo of my beautiful young parents on honeymoon.

DAVID M. KATZ's avatar

"Huddled under its expansive spread,

grouped in little clusters as we stand,

what is it that we pass from hand to hand?"--Memorable lines by one of the finest poets of our time.

Ken Gordon's avatar

Was deeply moved by the first few lines when I first read it. Maybe because my father died in 2023.

Melanie Bettinelli's avatar

"As if under an awning,"

"I too now find myself chilled by that shade

which canopies the aging and the dead."

Those two lines have been haunting me, in a good way. I'm not sure what it is about that awning/shade/canopies triad, but it gives me chills.

Katherine Moore's avatar

Thank you for sharing, Ken!

Ken Gordon's avatar

You're welcome. Happy to see you here, Katherine.

Monique's avatar

I’m a fellow orphan, and this really landed. Mom and Dad *did* seem to be looking past me somewhere else. Nice to start the week with some thoughts about my folks. I’m very much looking forward to the coming weeks!

Ken Gordon's avatar

I hear you, Monique. I was deeply moved on my first read. Also: My mom liked this one--a first in Sonneteer history!