Reading the Apology

[…] not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things but do not understand the meaning of them.
Plato, Apology

Although not without its jocosities,
as well as its tragedies, life is mostly filled
with a farrago of inconveniences,
so, with a soft spot for magpies,
while mastering the implements
of idle chatter and flamboyance of gesture,
being the reserved ignoramus I am, I shrug
in front of it, just as I did
when I first met Platocrates—
not with resentment but relief.
After all, he gave me a dispensation
from intellectualism.


More words to ponder at maciejmodzelewski.com

Journal (A naked body)

If there’s anything more tedious than a naked body, it’s a documentary about showing it off, and yet here I am, watching one, or at least trying to. But as I wrote the opening sentence, I gave up on the film and decided to read a little about the perception of and attitude towards the body in antiquity, and more specifically in ancient Greece and Rome, instead. I found an interesting series of articles on the subject titled The Body as an Idea in Ancient Greece 101 by Eugenia Ivanova, and I’m already halfway through, but it’s getting late, so I will finish it tomorrow. It’s time to take my naked body to the shower and to bed.