Python Liberation Front

A jpg of an old painting that inspired a poem....

30+ some years ago, I saw a picture of a painting that inspired me to write a poem. The poem has been modified a few times down through the years, but the existential angst that inspired it certainly came from my reaction to that pictue. I could not find the picture in recent years; I didn't recall who painted the painting, nor what book I saw the picture in. Now, thanks to some imaginative googling, I have found it, and here it is...




Please click to play mp3 audio file of me reading the poem

When quakes shall root out foundings to the core,
When bold Abora shakes with cholic roar,
Then let the one in Abyssinia weep
That man so rashly lays him down to sleep.

How small a loss it were to lose a race
Of feeble mind and self-deceiving face,
Who write their songs with fingers in the sand
And like Sir Spens, go walking on the strand.

Yet still a pity should we lose our hope,
Questing, ever questing, time always our foe...

Before the solemn eyes of aged Pope
Man holds the last spectacular at bay,
No more we weep; the moon is full again
Today; Eternity is then tomorrow.