"Inside the Parthenon"

There are

so many things you never see,
so many things you miss,
so many things which pass you by,
when you don't take time to look.
There really is no secret
and there isn't a surprise
but won't see the water sparkle
until you come down to the brook.

We don't know of telekinesis,
such grand mysteries of mind,
but we do see there's no learning
when you don't know what to find.
When all is fixed in columns
and each one is aligned just so,
there's nothing more for learning
and nothing more to know.

We behold this noble beauty
from millennia long past.
We see those solemn columns
and all this time they last;
the Doric architecture,
even fluting in the stone;
but no-one's really asking
who's inside and all alone.

Here she is, Athena,
these ruins are her shrine.
It's the temple she visits,
when she takes her Earthly throne.
She observes the contemplation
and how all love the marbled stone
but they only see the columns
and Athena just flies home.


Note 1:  some sculpture from the Parthenon is held in the British Museum and, despite repeated requests from the Greek Cultural Ministry, these sculptures from antiquity have not been returned.

Note 2:  the sculpture was not released by Greeks but rather by Ottomans during a period of invasion.  Questions remain as to whether any permission was ever really granted by anyone.

Note 3:  multiple updates to the poem.  Unknown if it's final.