Casting an Epic

A Work in Progress
15

Would it be better to make our own myths?

Aldington as Ares a man of honor

who fought in the trenches defended France

an angry young man even angrier when older

he called H.D. “Dooley” she was his main muse

his Aphrodite of the intellect

his Sappho, suffering, enisled by streams

clear visions of classical consciousness

his ties to her ever stronger with time

for she was a goddess as was Nancy

a wood nymph ten years younger than Dooley

who ran Aldington ragged keeping late hours

engaging in Dionysian revels

chimes at midnight caress dawn’s peal of bells

we’ll screen a billion-page-view epic 

we’ll need rôles for Richard, Ezra, H.D.

Glenn Hughes, Nancy, Brigit, Glenn’s wife Babette

let’s see big parts for three men four women 

with all of the main parts doubling as gods:

Richard as Ares, giver of strength, God of war

he’ll play Theseus versus Minotaur too

Ezra Pound as Dionysius, theater and wine

he will also play Apollonius

H.D. as Ariadne goddess of Crete 

deified by Dionysius and Ezra Pound

Brigit as Aphrodite goddess of love

Babette as Hera and Glenn Hughes as Zeus

two Americans, rulers of the world

we’ll make fiction when we are short of facts

our movie will unfurl like an old scroll

 in Alexandria’s classical library

we must not impede but keep on moving

we’ll portray Apollonius writing

a new work with a new type of hero 

more complex than Homer’s Odysseus

for he’s like Aldington a slave to her

goddess both ethereal and sublime

Aphrodite Urania grips his mind

if we’re smart, we’ll script it for Bollywood

even if Sanskrit would be misunderstood

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                   2025