MOGADOR and PENELOPE. and introducing Lax.

[seraphimsigrist.livejournal.com]

Friends,
I joined a while back... I haven't posted before,
have followed posts which are interesting and seem to
focus on recent rather popular sort of books? This has
left me a little hesitant to contribute as mostly I read
stuff that is a little older and a little less popular
but lets take the plunge!
let me introduce one thing I am reading now in some
depth and that is the work of Robert Lax. Lax
was a poet and a friend of Thomas Merton he lived
1915-2000 and for the last 36 years in the Greek
islands, mostly on Patmos(returning to Olean New York
to die in the last months). If you want to read more about
Lax you can scroll through my recent journal to a number
of entries beginning December 20.(I might add that in general
I will be happy to friend anyone who wishes to friend my
journal)
I would like to share one poem here which I think you may
like, it is from his great cycle of circus poems
Circus of the Sun and is titled Mogador and Penelope.
( Read more... )

May I add the note that Mogador (Mogador Paul Cristiani) was a
circus rider and acrobat who was a friend of Lax's...Robert
Lax travelled for a time as a journalist,but appearing occasionaly
as a clown, with the Cristiani's circus.
Mogador had said to Lax when they first met precisely those
--may we say Pentecostal?-- words about the cloud...

I am thinking it would be interesting to reseach Mogador's own
life a little and see if at least an article could result and
am thinking of that as a goal this year--perhaps visiting the
Lax archive at St Bonaventure's College in Olean New York.

I would add that I think Robert Lax is one of the few truly
great poets of the last century(and perhaps best of those
after the time of Yeats,Eliot,Pound etc). Or at least he is
in ratio to being little known in America, a very great writer
indeed and also I would say a sage of Christian wisdom...

perhaps the book "Love had a compass" can be a good introduction
to the range of his work.
wishing everyone a Blessed New Year and good reading!
yours
+Seraphim
.
Robert Lax on Patmos.