ODE TO HYPATIA

<Dedicated to all those who seek  truth>

The Heavens should be simple

They are not

The once independent walk by faith

Not by sight

Others question not

But I must

My mind is my only view

Awakening of knowledge and quest

Challenged by theory

When the river becomes too deep

They shall be divers

When the mountain becomes too high

They shall be climbers

I will lead

Discovery requires courage

I fear not

Should the Sun shine too brightly

I will bask

When the Moon eclipses with shadow

I light candles

Conquering the deepest dark

Answers come to those persistent

Burdened by consent

Hypothesis not intent on movement

I content to wait

As seconds split the art is lost

I despair not

Old voids shape new truths

Consummation entangles human odyssey

Never to be freed

Beloved ideals strangled by reality

Nevermore upheld

Rewarded by the apostate of victory  

Devoid of Brotherhood

False prophet regaled yet despised

With hastened hands they gird themselves

Raiments of despair

And now the clash has ensued

Pulses beat of death

Seized at length and tightly bound

No escape

No relief

Proud men thinking they are gods

Forbidden secrets loosed

The walls crumble and burn

With them my ministry

With them my mind

With them my soul

Cessation of destiny

Crystal dreams turn into dust

All is lost

Enveloped in anguished sheen

I am finished

The blade strikes swiftly

I am free

But Agora lives in memory and mind

Hypatia was a legend ahead of her time. She was a teacher of astronomy, mathematics and philosophy in Alexandria in 391 AD during the Roman rule of Egypt and the fall of civilization. She believed in the secrets of the Universe including the movement of celestial bodies and was a strong advocate of  brotherhood. The prose is based upon a rendition of the life of Hypatia.

"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all," she is credited with saying. "To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing."