Epicurean Delight: On the Nature of Things
by Christine Adams Beckett
The irony behind the scientific knowledge
That there are atoms and void and nothing else:
Divine minds are free to love
Fearlessly, metaphysically.
The wrath of Jove and mythical thunderbolts
Are erased leaving us to pursue pleasure
And knowledge and enlightenment
In its higher, philanthropic sense.
After watery gruel of penance
We taste rich calm, without quid pro quo,
An eye without an eye, A tooth without a tooth.
Fear is nothing and Love is everything.
We keep a simpler recipe
For logical, all-governing Truth.
We soak our children
In a marinade of uncomplicated affection.
We stew for our families
A soulful, spicy soup
With a steadfast hand,
Nourishing not only their blood
But their Hearts,
With every loving caress of the spoon.

Primavera, Sandro Botticelli c.1492. Tempera on panel. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
Further reading: The Swerve: How the World Became Modern, by Stephen Greenblatt. W.W. Norton & Company, New York 2011.