Are we done with the Greeks?

[rowens]

The one who wrote that about the Greek is using the Greek to write about it. They use Greek and Latin words to make the very points they make. Words and Symbols and Myths are tied up in how people feel, think and do. Poems and stories about Africa and China and Scandinavia, often now, operate by comparison and recontextualizing through Greek and Biblical notions and affect. The Christian Bible and some Nations which claim Christian or Muslim or Hebrew relevance are sourced in, for and against, the Greek aspects of the Bible, and so with much of popular culture. Japanese culture and Mexican culture and so on are "corrupted" with Western-Christian notions, and so Greek.

For poetry to work, there has to be some resonance, and the easiest thing to resonate with, and often fulfilling and tempting, is what resonates already.
When I was growing up, fairy tales and myths were referenced in cartoons and children's shows and pop culture all the time. That's not always the case now. But values and ethics and language still are based in those origins.

That can be broken out of, while flirting with Difference. I don't know the origin of the word 'Difference'.

I have planned to one day write a book with no allusions other than folklore and urban legends of local places, which is already, somewhat, touched by myth and religion.
And I have planned to write a book of poems with no allusions at all, which is, maybe ironically, called, The Kindly Ones.