Aphrodite
Joy, Wisdom, Redemption
Poetry is a language of Aletheia, revealing truth from the liminal space where the divine meets the mortal. Alongside music and art, poetry transcends metaphysics and calculative thought, becoming a final frontier for what lies beyond.
Through myth, we communicate "beyond the gods," navigating the liminal to glimpse the heavens. This poetic and mythological lens moves us beyond Husserl’s phenomenology of consciousness toward Heidegger’s heralding of Being.
Mythic poetry seeks to transcend the confines of subjective and objective thought. It stands before Being, open to grace and the gifts it bestows. By drawing allegories of “the gods,” from their universal archetypes, I aim to reframe them, seeking the liminal, where the light of “God” may be revealed.
Aphrodite: Joy, Wisdom, Redemption
Oh smile, pure Aphrodite, lovely light
Reveal like dawn in rose magnetic charm
Refulgent shimmer, gleam in awestruck gaze
You sing, exalt, reveal, sometimes alarm
Oh laugh, deep Aphrodite, loving scent
With joy ascend your herald throne divined
Empathic, generous, a tempest spark
Igniting wonder, dreams to be refined
Oh guide, true Aphrodite, by the heart
In tragedy, you watch your hero fall
You hide, reveal, then vanish once again
To draw, descend, and raise the hero tall
Oh save, bright Aphrodite, flame of fire
Imbued in borrowed light from star’s embrace
Emerging through the clearing, herald bright
Unheard, you speak, out of eternal grace
©Walter Emerson AdamsEnjoy this video presentation of Aphrodite. Lyrics by Walter Emerson Adams. Music and vocals by Suno. ©Walter Emerson Adams.
My mythic poetry seeks to restore the pre-Socratic, Hellenistic view of philosophy as a “love of wisdom,” contrasting it with the post-Aristotelian “pursuit of wisdom.” It reframes the gods and goddesses of early Hellenistic thought as harbingers of Being, foreshadowing later Christian thinking. Aphrodite “shining by a borrowed light” (Heidegger) embodies the unconcealment of divine love and beauty. The silent Being of alethic grace.