The Roman Coin
hail Caesar!
the emperor's image
unexpectedly turned up
by the plough
and the mud washed off,
before very long
the small silver coin will be found
a place
in a suitable cabinet
in an appropriate museum
for us all to view,
but yet today
as every yesterday
in the night sky
the visaged disc -
white
silver
blue
red
yellow
orange
black
or veiled
according to the season,
what coin?
what emperor?
what strange coincidence?
______
gw2010
Do you know the story of the Mildenhall Treasure? Like a real-life Pardoner's Tale.
ReplyDeleteThe colour of the moon is an interesting subject. I found a site about it the other day
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mikeoates.org/mas/projects/mooncolour/intro.htm
Another strange coincidence is -as I'm sure you know- that the moon is just the right distance from the earth to blot out the sun during an eclipse.
Beautiful. A stray crack in the sidewalk leads to a photo leads to a blog post leads to a comment leads to a poem. What sense do we make of this pattern? Connection and influence and the uncovering of treasures even as we harvest by the moon.
ReplyDeleteThank-you for this poem. It, too, is what I needed to hear in this moment.
Art Sparker, Thanks.Mildenhall, I'd forgotten. I used to subscribe to two UK metal detecting hobby magazines: 'Searcher' & 'Treasure Hunting'.
ReplyDeleteIn my treasure hunting days I always made a 50/50 agreement with the farmers on whose lands I would be with my metal detector. One time I found a religious item: a 14th century bronze seal matrix. It is now in a small local museum (Lancaster). I shared the proceeds, a small token payment, with the farmer.
Mostly the farmers were more than happy if I found for them a lost piece which had fallen off an agricultural machine.
Unfortunately these days, from a metal detecting & treasure hunting point of view, I now live in Austria where it is not allowed, or very restricted. To do it without getting tangled up in a lot of red tape and regulation is practically impossible. In other words, they want people like me snooping around under their fields. I wonder why?
obviously that penultimate sentence should have read "...DON'T want..."
ReplyDeleteDominic,
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading about coincidences and I often wonder what such a coincidence as the moon being the same size as the sun (when seen from the Earth) and not only that but when seen at a certain angle having a human-like face on it; what all this really is.
Read the comment by Bungy 32 under your comment as another example.
I found your link on a comment somewhere to 101 Zen stories and I've kept it.
Bungy 32. Welcome here. The mysterious moves in mysterious ways.
ReplyDeleteI've been given a blog award and decided to pass it on to you - so I've just put a link to PiR on my blog. Drop by to see!
ReplyDeleteBill,
ReplyDeleteI cheerfully pass the award to Weaver of Grass who deserves it more than I do. En passant, I believe ostrich meat is healthy to eat. Low cholesterol.
Will check out your other award winning websites. If they're as good as this one they must be good!
Ciao and thanks for the LINK,
gwilym [:>)
Yes Gwilym, I saw about this very early coin turning up. I always think what a shame to take it out of the ground.
ReplyDeleteSurely, Weaver, we cannot leave the nation's treasure in the ground to rot. Isn't it an important part of our heritage.
ReplyDelete