Enlightenment

by Sanghamitra Roychowdhury - Not entered


The medieval matriarch of our clan, You labeled life as a 
Rite of passage from this land to the next
Scorning the secular search for human happiness
Like the Israelites or the chosen few, you stood on the summit
Of Mt. Sinai and entered into a covenant with the Lord.

While with pitchforks and metaphors from Pope's Essay On Man
I attacked the notion of particular providence as presumptuous pride
Hurling the sanctuaries of scriptures, the pages of preordained pasts 

In celestial compartments, like Zeus's deafening thunderbolts, 
They would burst with anguish and anger at being 
Fastened in prisoners' chains within puffy cumulus clouds
The thorns of your tulips would prick and perforate sheets of damp darkness
Rainfall were torrents of tears trickling down the cheeks of night.

You believed in absolute truths from received authorities
Like Locke's epistemology, I sought all knowledge through observation and experience
Through Galileo's telescope, I viewed Voltaire and Montesquieu living in heaven

Conversing beneath belts of the constellation of stars, they sat in
Meditative lotus positions on floating carpets, like nightingales
Nestled in the nirvana of the enlightenment.

In the beginning of spring, I was like a squirrel emerging from this house of hibernation
I cleared my chimneys by sweeping the lodged ashes of debris and smoke away  
Wiping the condensed water vapor covering the windows of the soul

They were ubiquitous, the universal laws governing human nature
Scientific discoveries and inventions, were more miraculous and
Potent than the feats of professed prophets
Sunlight shone on reason, not revelation as the rose of the second renaissance.

   

Reason for writing:

    I was inspired by the principles of the enlightenment which 
looked to the laws governing nature as a means of inferring conclusions about the world.
    

Birth sign: Not entered
Date created: 1998-04-09 22:50:24
Last updated: 2021-03-03 14:40:08
Poem ID: 49272

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