William of Avon

Other, more hazy historians write

with one eye open, eager to retell  

what they may have gleamed from turning over pages,

digging through the dust bins of antiquity.

Desirous and keen to know everything,

they’ll build elaborate houses from the bones

and skeletons of majestically imagined tombs --

sometimes a hastily arranged mound --

always curious and querying of the past.

I prefer the more organic approach,

free and loose of dispiriting facts --

inventing motivations where needed,  

if and when the gods prove too pedestrian,

a little too like us in their impulsions.

Humanity requires blood and tissue, a gory tale,

if expected to sit through an hour’s recital.   

Ken e Bujold

Author's Note

My new mania. Playing with the old French Quatern form, 16 lines. Free and spirited, much as it's inspiration Robert Lowell"s Sonnets.