Picture of R. Allan Dermott

R. Allan Dermott

Beyond the Dam: 21

Personal Growth

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Mt. Katahdin

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On July the fourth, as America is waking,

Apollo strikes Katahdin’s helmet first.

A ranger climbs the mount as day is breaking

And poised like Liberty thrusts our flag into burst.

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In time, across the summit, blackened clouds

And blasting flashes trumpet Python’s heirs:

The sons of the serpent Apollo slew enshrouds

The people running down the mountain’s stairs.

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Elohim, slay again the terror beast

Apollo failed to stop in hatred’s tomb;

The sons of Abraham need Love’s pure yeast

To gather foes in throe into one womb.

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Then play Thy lyre on Katahdin’s chimney peak;

Let music whisper to rabbi, priest, and sheik.

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Allan’s notes:

APOLLO.  From the time of Homer onward, Apollo was the god of divine distance—the god who made mortals aware of their own guilt and purified them of it, who presided over religious law and the constitutions of cities, and who communicated with mortals his knowledge of the future and the will of his father, Zeus.

Apollo was the god of practically everything – including but not limited to music, poetry, art, prophecy, truth, archery, plague, healing, sun, and light.

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