More on Secular Epiphanies, and the American Sublime

A short while back. I wrote a post about encountering a poet sitting at his typewriter at a local farmers market who would write a poem, on the spot, on any topic one might propose. I proposed "epiphany, in the non-religious sense," made a modest contribution to his well being and was asked to return in 15 minutes. You can see the result and read more about that here.

When I subsequently searched for his website, I discovered that poetry-on-demand is readily available and apparently has been for some time.

One particular writer, Jacqueline Suskin, caught my eye and I asked her for a poem on the same topic to see how her notion of the concept might differ from that of the first poet, William Curtis. To be fair, she had more time to think it over and received a somewhat larger contribution to her well being, but an affordable one nonetheless.

The Limitless Maintained in Experience of Momentary Light

The title of this post is the last stanza of a short poem on the topic of "Epiphany" by William Curtis.

The word, in its most primary sense, refers to a sudden manifestation of the divine. In that context, the most famous epiphany is perhaps that of St. Paul (then known as Saul) when, on the road to Damascus, he saw the figure of the risen Jesus and became a convert to Christianity.

But as we now know it, an epiphany can be a sudden insight into almost anything. It doesn't have to be religious in nature.