Friday, August 15, 2014

Ode on the 100th Anniversary Of the Panama Canal! (1914-2014)

Ode on the 100th Anniversary
Of the Panama Canal!  (1914-2014)

By Dennis L. Siluk, Dr. H.c.
                              International Latin Poet Laureate,
And Poet Laureate of Central Peru (Recipient of the Gran Cross of San Jeronimo)


A Tribute

I

Hold your head high, open your gates to the seas
Beat on the drums, look at the blaze of steel!...
Behold the deathless star that bows above
Your brow, and know that it bows to your achievement!
Wherefore, give your flags to the skies,
And let the trumpets of your quest sound!
For think of it, it is one hundred years now that your
Sons have journeyed through these eternal canals,
Through valleys where once jungles and mountains were,
Wherefrom, I say, saved man, his long journey around!


II

Hold your head high, open your gates to the seas,
That canal sublime, nobler than all Time!
From where the world in friendship calls
Across her Pacific and Atlantic thoroughfares—
From Africa, and Asia, and North America, and
Europe, from seas beyond your keels,
From the cold lands of the south and north,
From the spine of the Andes, and its granite walls:
From all those frontiers, has man brought to
You all his labors and his arts, his greatness and gifts
Of mind; heart and soul, and even war materials!
Yes, even war, from man’s ignorance of greed and sin!
And with all of this, from man’s breath he can cry
Victory for this 100th Anniversary! Of man’s no longer
Beholding, to the Great Earth, for he has done what
No other century has done, liken to Titans’ work, and
Yet how small is man, for such a feat! Hence, let the
Skeptic gaze at man’s greeting, man at the canal gates
Be always in harmony and in peace!

III

Henceforward, let man rise from the best-part, and
Praise the Lord from the Heavens that he once had seen
In a vision, such a destined goal, and design, that he
Once was not blind, that he has triumphed through the
Heights and brutish years, and through the astounding
Ordeals; that he sought and found the steel engines, 
To shape for a hundred years, this human joy and need.
Here also, do the marvels shine! No boundaries for great
Minds! And yes, yes here the quite seraphim’s gaze
Those who have given to men their strength, and here,
Was where they sent to the Lord of Lords, man’s dream!

IV

And yet the dream has not died, for still man hungers to
Build higher and wider to the sky, from the humble dust 
And dream-vision, of that day, for tomorrow!
And yes, the human strength shall again serve the
Common good, of the people of the world…   In hopes
Man will be forever loyal to his race—which lies beyond
The seas and man’s dismay, somewhere in grace:
Called the human brotherhood, and to look upon each
Face, as the much-loved face, God has given!

No: 4522 (8-14-2014) A Tribute
Artwork by the author/ written by: Dennis L. Siluk, Dr. H.c.
Copyright© 8-14-2014 (placed on the internet 8-15-2014)