The Epic of Gilgamesh, the archaeology and healing of the soul

 

Some people think of previous ages as less civilized than the age in which they live; they think of people from the past as being different from people today, less open-minded, somehow less "civilized". However, human psychology doesn't really change, it can be modified, but it remains substantially the same in any era. People in the past dressed differently than we do, they didn't have modern appliances, their weapons of war were not as destructive as ours, some people lived in terrible poverty, but the soul of these people is not different than our soul; people from the past share our human concerns, emotions, desires, joys and fears, prejudices and insights. All of this is a prelude to saying that The Epic of Gilgamesh has an almost contemporary quality to it, in some ways Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu are people that could be alive today, they share our emotional life, they share our psychic/soul life. 

When we first meet Gilgamesh —this epic was written 4000 years ago and Gilgamesh may have lived around 4000 years ago— Gilgamesh is living an unreflected life; he is a ruler, both arrogant and powerful. We know that other people, his contemporaries, didn't approve of some of what he did; he is the king, the supreme leader, and it is mentioned that there is some disapproval of him because he took advantage of his position in society. But life changes, and psychological and spiritual change is often caused by suffering; suffering makes us think about our life, it makes us reflect on life. And this is the experience of Gilgamesh when his friend, Enkidu, dies; this is when Gilgamesh becomes more than a character in an ancient text. 

It is suffering and his inability to deal with it that makes Gilgamesh "one of us"; what is of interest for us in Gilgamesh’ s story is his psychology, his psyche, his soul, and his response to suffering. When his friend Enkidu dies Gilgamesh experiences grief and sorrow, he knows the transience of life; he must reflect on the meaning of life when he is thrown back on himself. Gilgamesh could have anything he wanted, he lived a privileged life, but he couldn't have eternal life, he couldn't escape the transience of life, he couldn’t bring Enkidu back to life. In his grief Gilgamesh searches for meaning, and his search continues until he finds an explanation for his grief, until he finds meaning for his loss and how to deal with it.

In The Epic of Gilgamesh we are reading something that pertains to our own existence; indeed, this epic is a four thousand year old version of aspects of our own journey to a meaningful life. The subject of The Epic of Gilgamesh is the archaeology and healing of the soul.

 

30 March 2023; edited, November 2024; 19, 20 December 2024.

How to write a poem

Part of a poet's education is reading poetry and hearing poets read their work. Other people's poems inspire us, not to write like them but to write our own poems, in our own voice, to be a witness of what we have seen and experienced—the geography of your soul—not to copy anyone's poems but an expression of one's own vision. One might say, when hearing a poem being read, that the poem inspires the soul to express itself.

            My test of poetry has always been that if the poems I am reading make me want to write then the work of that poet has enlarged my vision of poetry and life; that something in me resonates to this poet's work. The poets I continue to read, who for over the last twenty or more years still inspire me, are Charles Olson, Robert Lowell, and Louis Dudek. They are poets of the soul and enlarge one's concept of poetry.

            We also learn about poetry by hearing poets read their own work. Between October 1969 and April 1973 I heard many poets read at Sir George Williams University; I also attended readings at McGill University and Loyola College. Sometimes after a reading there would be a party, for instance at Professor Richard Sommers' home, or at the home of another professor; after the party I'd go home and write about the reading in my diary. It wasn't until 2012 that these diary entries had any importance when I was interviewed about the Sir George Williams University reading series by Professor Jason Camlot at Concordia University (formerly SGWU). Attending so many readings was a wonderful apprenticeship for a young poet. Here are the names of some of the poets that I heard read their work during my undergraduate years.

             Jerome Rothenberg, bill bissett, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Davey, Diane Wakowski, Ron Loewinsohn, Tom Raworth, David Ball, Robert Creeley, Roy Kiyooka, Al Purdy, Joel Oppenheimer, Ted Berrigan, David McFadden, Gerry Gilbert, Jack Winter, Kenneth Koch, Dennis Schmitz, Jackson Mac Low, Michael Horowitz, Gary Synder, Dorothy Livesay, L.E. Sissman, Mac Hammond, Tom Marshall, Irving Layton, W.H. Auden, Frank Scott, Earle Birney, Fred Cogswell, Louis Dudek, Alden Nowlan, Margaret  Atwood, Patrick Anderson, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Michael Benedikt, William Empson, Anaïs Nin, and others.

The Great Year: The Age of Leo, c. 10,800 - 8,640 B.C.

Age of Leo

(c. 10,800 - 8640 B.C.)

A lion is born
in the heart,
he walks at night
enters dreams,
and in our throats
when we wake
we seem to hear
growls, roars.
This is not
a time for prayer
or worship
of any god,
but knowing
an inner light
illuminating
consciousness,
as the sun
moves across fields,
mountains, lakes,
from morning rising
to evening sunset.
Here is the birth
of Apollo, somewhere
else Dionysus is born,
somewhere else again
Hermes and Osiris.
This golden age
when we found
light above our
heads, within
our souls;
and always
a lion waiting
in the distance.