Page 14 - GALIET THE TORCH, THE GODDESS: On Poesy Plato IV

cavemen. It is irrational, fallible, unstable, without understanding and subject to change by persuasion 3⁄4 the very antithesis of pure Knowledge or pure Poetry 3⁄4 that which is rational, infallible, understood and unable to be affected by persuasion.
Socrates, at this point in the dialogue, seems to be dwelling in the world of appearances he so despises for he seems to have forgotten that it is through life’s struggle, through living poesy (and music and the fine arts) that we heal and transcend, facilitating our own understanding and, propitiously, grasping what is unknown, what is absent: the mystery, the inspiration whose energy permeates every molecule of our beings and leaves us breathless with wonder, limp with magic and suspended with an unforgettable tenderness. Even if the Form lasts a second, an hour or an eternity, our suffering is so worth it. To deny our humanity, our highs and lows, our growth and decay, our desires and undesires is to be incapable of poetry and Poetry, of philosophy and Philosophy and dwelling on earth as Heidegger exclaims. Therefore, a Philosopher King without poetry is unable to access Poetry: he is a king as much blinded by the light as the cavemen are blinded by darkness. And, as both are extremes, paradoxically, there is no room for the “other” for the “in-between.” Hence, Socrates’ contradicts himself with his
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