No, I have not embraced paganism. My Catholicism is firmly embedded deep within my heart. But I do wish to share another poem. My tried and true readers – poetry aficionados all – will refrain from a collective sigh and rolling of the eyes, also. The title above is the title of a poem I wrote after I had come home from the 2008 Air & Aviation Show in Duluth, Minnesota, complete with the US Navy Blue Angels along with a host of regional and national aerial aces. It was a picture perfect occasion; not even the rain, which shortened the show, failed to dampen my enthusiasm for what I witnessed. And the poem was already forming in my head before I completed the 90 minute drive home. It was borne from the question, “How would I describe what I just saw if I had a basic polytheistic worldview, bordering on animism”? The result was the following:

On the day the Gods came down and entertained this northern town,

with feats of prodigious display, obeisance we gave them on that glorious day.

Klatt, Poe & Wagstaff, like a Promethean trio, stole fire from heaven with irrepressible brio,

and looped, rolled and spun for this crowd of hushed acolytes, while rain threatened all, fast extinguishing daylight.

Sky Father, Ouranos, behind his celestial door, empowered his children to give the crowd more.

Thunderbolt, Lightning, Fighting Falcon, all came, to draw from us praise, glory and fame.

We had all arrived in our midday reveries, awash in a sea of Minnesota hobnobbery.

But soon we were torn from our self-centered pursuits by the entrance of Angels in gold & blue suits.

Of their esteemed number, you could count only six; to speak of their fame, you could not be too prolix.

They teased and amazed us with sights supersonic. For this soggy crowd they proved to be the right tonic.

The Gods soon left us as the rain fell in sheets. I’ll never forget their aerial feats.

This remembrance I offer as a modern day mythology; this poetic utterance, a contemporary apology.