Dante's Other Journey

Part I

Penelope Meets me for Coffee:

"...so,...so the depths speak." cracks the voice of mystic authority and frail human age.

"And what language can it speak?"

She crushes me gently,

"Or is it the lack of speaking that says it all?"

internal choirs:

That says it all? That reveals

all? scares the shit out of

me? (scares me because it reveals the

Holy One? (but not the part I was taught to see.))

the espresso cup sings unnoticed as it meets the saucer in emptied existence.

Penelope then echos Aquinus with, "Yet the depths hold the 'Via Negativa', the land of the dead, and the souls of your unforgiven."

We part, and I regret the snow in my shoes as the bus seems to never be quick enough.

Part II

Penelope's Parting Words:

Take your boat, Dante, and travel to where the River Styx sends its seed, and set sail. Set sail and row and make haste, for you will never reach the end of the bay. But understand the identity of this bay: the bay is only the transition of the River Styx and the eternal Crystal Sea.

But ask Odysseus, its only when you dock, oh Dante, oh soul of mine, that you can retire the journey and are still only here.