On the Occasion of the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Dana Gioia, Breaking His Left Foot While Hiking on His Family's Property in California.
Muses, make ye mournful sound!
Gioia's piède-sinistra broken
On his native stony ground
Ere a pathway could be found
Or a gasp of pain be spoken.
Dryads! Nymphs! Yea, Nereids!
Come and mourn in myriads!
Artists, take thy paints, thy palettes,
And compose ye endless posies;
Jongleurs, pen ye cheerless ballads;
Chefs! Attention to thy salads,
For our Gioia discomposes
While the sorry Nereids
Mourn in doleful myriads.
This is, alas! catastrophe
For Athabaskans as for Nome -
Shall those Alaskans atrophy
Who practice craft at work or home?
Shall those Oneidas nigh to Rome
Join the weeping Nereids
Mourning in their myriads?
L'envoi
Alas! Alas! Catastrophe!
Minstrels sing their sorry ballads!
Athabaskans atrophy!
Chefs weep buckets in their salads!
Lachesis, Clotho have their trophy
And the seeping Nereids
Sniffle for long periods.
Wesli Court
