Poetry Day II
A Short History of Chess
When chess began in India
The bishops charged as elephants,
The queen was still a minister
And both were clearly combatants
In battles secular and male.
Who claims the Eastern ways perplex?
It took the West to twist the tale
To strategies of faith and sex.
Desire
Of the violence of that pain
What poor traces still remain---
This I learnt: the wry technique
Of avoiding what I seek.
Opening the Pyramid
Though you recall the emphatic starlight
When the angels said, 'Follow we shall lead',
Irony, like the free air and sunlight
Crumbles the mummy of each simple creed.
Dick Davis
When chess began in India
The bishops charged as elephants,
The queen was still a minister
And both were clearly combatants
In battles secular and male.
Who claims the Eastern ways perplex?
It took the West to twist the tale
To strategies of faith and sex.
Desire
Of the violence of that pain
What poor traces still remain---
This I learnt: the wry technique
Of avoiding what I seek.
Opening the Pyramid
Though you recall the emphatic starlight
When the angels said, 'Follow we shall lead',
Irony, like the free air and sunlight
Crumbles the mummy of each simple creed.
Dick Davis