Athena’s Timeless Light
A Hymn to the Gray-Eyed Emergence of Wisdom and Courage
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.
Athena’s Timeless Light
A Hymn to the Gray-Eyed Emergence of Wisdom and Courage
Athena, guiding shimmer of the stars
Your wisdom spans the realm beyond our sight
The truth revealed, emergent light at dawn
Concealed, the rosy fields instill delight
Defend, Athena, courage wins the day
In hope, your subjects find their way revealed
A kingdom where your throne forever sparks
And tames the tempest with your sword and shield
Frustration, lover of the timeless loom
Mere mortals test your patience to unveil
The other deathless ones impose their wills
Achieve, Athena, your design, prevail
Conflicted, sage and warrior divine
Enlighten minds with hidden thoughts, sublime
Your eyes are light, gray-eyed Athena, kind
Your plans unfold in majesty through time
Concerned, Athena, legacies decay
Not yours, bright-eyed, it only hides to part
Your subjects, children, search to find it out
The radiance inflicts their mind and heart
Athena’s friendship never fails a soul
She walks beside, sometimes from high refrains
By whispers faint and signs ahead she leads
Her constancy outshines the night's domains.
©Walter Emerson AdamsEnjoy this video presentation of Athena’s Timeless Light. 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. Athena “shining by a borrowed light” (Heidegger) embodies the unconcealment of divine wisdom, intellectual acuity, courage, and creativity—the silent Being of alethic grace.