The Garden of Selfless Engagement: My Poem on Emerson's and Thoreau's Encounter with the Bhagavad-Gita in April's Verse-Virtual

The Bhagavad-Gita, a 700-verse Hindu scripture written thousands

of years ago (estimates vary) as an episode in the epic poem called 

"Mahabharata," a kind of encyclopedic encapsulation of history and philosophy from a time well before the start of Western Civ, had its moment during the late 60s and no doubt is still studied by those interested in "Eastern" ways. 

         As I discovered recently, in reading about the great 19th century New England thinkers Emerson and Thoreau, classical Hindu thought and the "Gita" was very influential back then as well. Most commentators sum up its message as an argument for selfless action in the complex and imperfect arena of human affairs. In the middle decades of the 19th century, the outstanding moral issue for many Americans -- and certainly for the pair I'm concerned with here -- was slavery. 

         And, I think, we have our own equivalents today. I am posting the poem below. You can find others by me, and by 39 poets in all in the April 2020 Verse-Virtual here Verse-Virtual April 2020

 

 Concerning Engagement

In "Emerson and Thoreau Meet the Bhagavad-Gita,"

the poem that I hope some day to write,

our two great American spokesmen

lean on the wisdom of another age,

in another dispensation of human consciousness,

to seek a guidance for their conduct,

      or so I see the matter,

in the crisis of their day.

The Bhagavad-Gita, one tale -- one narrative gesture

            within a gigantic cycle of mythical stories

dating from a millennium we don't have on our side of the world --

in which a god not easily understood in Western terms, 

            Krishna,

speaks to the chief warrior of his age,

            Arjuna,

on the doorstep of the his culture's primeval "World War"

as he decides whether or not to participate

in what is essentially a civil war, as all wars are,

if humanity is your family,

and which he knows will result in great suffering and

stupendous loss of life.

Yet Krishna, Lord of All the Senses, Friend of the Afflicted,

(but also Beloved Cowherd and possessor of 105 other common titles) 

explains the history and meaning of almost everything

in order to show the reluctant warrior hero

why he 'must play his part'

in this most terrible battle of the world in which he is

            fated, destined,

and therefore must choose to live.

Just so Thoreau, and more reluctantly Emerson,

came not only to condemn slavery,

and to aid in the escape of fugitive slaves,

but to praise the violent deeds

of the anti-slavery martyr John Brown,

even at the risk

of plunging their nation into what proved to be

an enormously costly, bloody,

            endlessly consequential, 

Civil War,

leading us to consider,

What Do We Do Now?

                       

Bio Note: I write poems, fiction, and newspaper copy for The Boston Globe. My novel Suosso's Lane treats the Plymouth, Mass. origins of the Sacco-Vanzetti case exactly 100 years ago. A second novel won a competition for a work of speculative fiction, though still has no publication date (but who's complaining?). I've had poems recently in The American Journal of Poetry and New Verse.News. A couple of the poems below are taken from my recent poem-a-day project begun, for no particular reason, in early February.