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Golden Calf

A misunderstood scenario

By Rob AngeliPublished 8 months ago β€’ Updated 8 months ago β€’ 3 min read
20
The Golden Bull, symbol for the Mesopotamian Sun-God, Shamash

The Perfect Metal:

It was there [in solar ravishment

piqued over the tip of the mountain]

that we danced around

the golden calf.

We awaited law-books

to catalyze a golden age

at the foot of Mount Sinai:

worshiping in broad daylight.

Sumerian figurine of a goat and flowering tree; gold and lapis lazuli.

They say that speech is silver, but

Silence is Gold. This all started

as a beat Meditation so

Daddy Moses, please

don't be angry with all us

wayward kids of Israel, blaming

this dance of whimsy

and delight in graven glint of brilliant gold,

round as crowns of kings.

Egyptian Apis Bull, also associated with the sun. Horns of Lapis Lazuli.

All that golds is glitter and stardust, clouds

coagulated into chunks, the sacred ore.

Gold is born even

through earthquakes.

Mineral-rich waters are

pressure-cooked in

hairline fault-line fractures:

[EARTHSHAKEN]

This concept is a goldmine.

Gold mask from Mycenaean Greece

It's shiny and

It's rare/

So we seek to store it and adore it and

from it we decorate our magpie nest,

melt it down,

[we wayward Hebrew Hooligans]

who had the golden touch

in the burnished shadow

of Egypt's idols and Sumeria's cuneiform;

we who'd wandered far from

all her Grain, fasting, and

laden with sparkle of trinkets,

supposed to be a nest-egg

left in verses, reservation

for the golden years:

Pre-Inca gold mask from Peru

//: this time, not destined for minting nation's coin,

or as means of end to purchase,

but only in Adoration.

Nested in a heart of gold\

earth-extracted

solar is glitter

/soul\

a by-product of a Star's death

clogged with iron in the core reactor into

explosions of gold and silver

clouding clumped

nebulae of heavy metals

sought throughout the galaxy. Go for the gold!

By NASA on Unsplash

(Supernovas scatter heavy metals such as gold and silver throughout the universe.)

Heaven and Earth

Come to One

in Gold

(bluest of heavens blackened incineration)

When it shines back the light

of the sun

Day by Day.

Detail of an Angel from a painting by Fra Angelico

The halos of saints and angels

were colored in gold paint,

sheening orb and mandala;

therefore, our calf will not be forged of Fool's Gold

Golden rhyton in the shape of a Griffon: ancient Persia, Achaemenid period

but of the true Material.

We have never possessed

Gold, but have carried it

with us along the way. It is something we have

seen in museums, and around

the collars and wrists

of attractive ladies.

Yet gold cannot be possessed/

even by museums.

Golden rhyton from ancient Thrace in the shape of a Stag

Here it is: former currency free from its crucible;

Could have been money

in perpetual circulation.

There were necklaces and bangles to

encircle the necks and wrists

Gold bracelets: Egyptian

of the rich. But

instead we will melt it down

Necklace with leaves of solid gold, lapis lazuli beads: Sumerian

by power of fire and

forge

to form the molten mass

into a golden calf. [You could

almost hear its juvenile moo

as it chomps the tenderly

gilded grasses]. My cup runneth over.

Another Thracian rhyton; not a calf but a goat, also feeds on grasses.

We can buy nothing with it now.

The gold that formed this calf

is otherwise invested:

out of circulation and

useless to the world.

So very perfect now for dancing round and round

in animal raptures.

Egyptian low-relief sculpture depicting the worship of the Apis Bull

Oh Daddy Moses, do not

command,

along with High Priest Aron,

that we be slaughtered in the thousands

women and young included

for our gilded dance about this Calf

in such redounding merry roundels. Gold is madness, but

can translate star-shine into prophesy. Anyway,

It is not the idol that we worship

but the ray of sunshine

that it captures so well enraptured

as the sun goes forth

Day by Day

in mantic mantras.

Maybe in the future It will be

in a museum

behind glass

and will no longer be considered

IDOLATRY. Gold for gold's sake.

The lyre of Ur: from a tomb in ancient Sumeria. Such a cool curly blue beard. Let's play some tunes.

surreal poetrynature poetrylove poemsinspirationalart
20

About the Creator

Rob Angeli

sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt

There are tears of things, and mortal objects touch the mind.

-Virgil Aeneid I.462

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Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!

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Comments (15)

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  • Cathy holmes8 months ago

    This is great. Love that ray of sunshine line. Well done.

  • ThatWriterWoman8 months ago

    Brilliant rumination of gold here! I really enjoyed how you pulled from the religious icons! I love how you made a comment on how we worship the ray of sunshine that reflects off the gold rather than the gold/deity itself - beautiful!

  • Donna Fox (HKB)8 months ago

    I love the style and overall feel of this! The way you wove such a delicate and intricate master piece is truly something to behold! Great work Rob!

  • Kristen Balyeat8 months ago

    This is absolutely incredible, Rob. The richness of the layers in this piece are just beyond. Every line holds so much weight, but this one jumped out: β€œIt is not the idol that we worship but the ray of sunshine that it captures so well enraptured as the sun goes forth Day by Day” 🀯 Amazing work! πŸ’«πŸ‘πŸ½

  • C. Rommial Butler8 months ago

    Awesome! I love how you weave historical and cosmological data into your work! Your mention of the scene from the bible made me think of this scene from Mel Brooks' History of the World: https://youtu.be/YyMQCj8LvZw?si=vrmHNT4u-LlsTaO0

  • Donna Renee8 months ago

    Loveeeee the depth in this and the storytelling that you wove into poetry!

  • Novel Allen8 months ago

    Quite a lot of research obviously went into this creation, history, lore, facts and maybe fiction. Who knows for sure. Excerpts of the golden calf and Moses journey. Such a mix of stories around gold and interpretations of time. Fascinating and confounding.

  • Paul Stewart8 months ago

    Well, this was quite the epic and a stunning homage to someone I'll miss quite a bit! It's also just stunning in its own right, so well done for that, Rob! Your writing is always surprising, thought-provoking and brilliant!

  • Alexander McEvoy8 months ago

    This was a beautiful poem, Rob :) Daddy Moses cracked me up! And the reference to the magpie's nest was awesome! It reminds me of a song I heard ages ago, "take all the sparkly things that the magpie stole. Does it know that it will never fill, that deep and cavernous hole." A wonderful tribute :) I always enjoy reading your work and the pictures you sew throughout the piece are always such a treat!

  • This comment has been deleted

  • Nice and Great images πŸ˜‰πŸ“πŸ‘Œ

  • Lol, I liked Daddy Moses. All that golds is glitter and stardust. I really liked that line. And the analogy of Magpie nest, that was brilliant! I loved your poem!

  • Cendrine Marrouat8 months ago

    There are so many great things about your poem, that we could debate for hours. I felt as though I was reading an epic like Gilgamesh. Wonderful!

  • Jazzy 8 months ago

    Honestly Daddy Moses is a vibe I loved this 🌟

  • Your powerful combination of poetic imagery, well-researched fact, and supportive illustrations is genius.The message is complex/ I love 'daddy Moses' reference. fyi I find it fascinating that gold forms after earthquakes e.g. in New Zealand. Keep up with expressing your extraordinary insight!

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