Looking for Sceptres I got Carpet Cleaners
Having no real part in this medieval ceremony,
they though are now recorded; the carpet sweepers.
So with respect: first the cloak and then
Her Majesty turned around that all may
see. And now the Sceptre and then the Rod.
And load thus up the crown comes next.
The world for a second held its breath.
So long after a Queen looks upon and
has a conversation on the beautiful tools
of her office. Magnificent, even to her.
How much water under the bridges
of the Thames.
Watching a video today someone:
(amused no doubt) recounts
how a full to overflowing Cathedral
awaited the coming Queen to be crowned.
Anything at this stage might arouse them.
And so it did: some movement or other
and eight thousand subjects stood up
while out of the organ loft came
four cleaners with their carpet
sweepers. And here in video,
a medieval ceremony of power
and commitment was coupled
with the extraordinary every day.
Not quite the expected scene
of path-sweeping for a monarch
but history has it now
by way of video.
Benita H. Kape © 25.4.2019
Today’s (optional) prompt is to write a poem that, like “Dictionary Illustrations,” is inspired by a reference book. Locate a dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia, open it at random, and consider the two pages in front of you to be your inspirational playground for the day. Maybe a strange word will catch your eye, or perhaps the mishmash of information will provide you with the germ of a poem. For what it’s worth, my 1961 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 11, has just informed me that despite “his beauty,” the “profligacy” of the Emperor Heliogabalus’s life “was such as to shock even the Roman public,” while also presenting me with a lovely little line drawing of a variant of heliotrope, the flowers of which are said to smell like cherry pie.
Decided not to do a visual for above today.
benitakape 