Orpheus in Greenwich Village

Painting by R.S. Beal


"Orpheus in Greenwich Village":

What if Orpheus,
confident in the hard-
found mastery,
should go down into Hell?
Out of the clean light down?
And then, surrounded
by the closing beasts
and readying his lyre,
should notice, suddenly,
they had no ears?

Jack Gilbert

Posted over on The Tao That Can Be Named