Incipit

ET IN ARCADIA EGO

Extraordinary Discourses of Unnecessary Matter

[in PASTORAL MODE]

Sketch

[EX URBE, the urban exodus, in the sense of to or from the city. The Industrial Revolution sends out its siren call and the rustic masses flock to its beating buzz centers: the urban exodus. Conversely a reverse movement of countryside inversion in solace-seekers sprung from urban stock find countryside perversions, some of them vacationers, others rugged mountaineers, all newly scientific in their evolving farming techniques, or revolving waves of posh burghers searching extended stretches of villa space on the campus intending to come enjoy the sweet morning dew and the fresh country air. Can you blame them even one little bit?

Yet don’t forget: some have been here since the dawn of time.]

‘cause even in Arcadia I have set my Camp

idyllic

and there it is I lie

My Bucolica is a modern reboot of the "eclogue" form originating in Classical Greece and Rome and much rehashed throughout all European literature. It usually comes in the form of a collection of shepherd's songs, dialogues, and stories featuring themes of love/desire, nature/the seasons, death/mortality, and the passing of time. It is often a playground to poeticize the animal world and humankind's relation to it, as well as particulars of the seemingly idyllic life led by simple shepherds and farmers in Arcadia. It is also referred to as bucolic literature. I wrote my Bucolica 2017-2018 in a mix of poetry and prose.