Breaking into Secrets

Orpheus gave up on loving
Women
After he lost Eurydice
To death
A second time.

So what about her?

Silent, peripheral,
Enigmatic.
Silent:
Eternally so.

So she's worth thinking about:

Whatever he did not have or hold,
Could not say, do,
Or understand,
She was.

Think about it:
He gave up on generative love.
He died misunderstood.

Was he arrogant for presuming to take her?
To claim the chalice,
To drink fully of life?

Was he wrong to chance
The opportunity to be his own song
By claiming his muse--

To force his way
Into the secrets of his art
That he might know the divine?

Orpheus knew:
Without her,
He could not be himself.

Claiming Eurydice:
Claiming himself.