Chain of Change

Chain of Change

A sestina by robert earl price

Marching in caps and gowns marking the players as sage
Guardians of lore and legend dancing on the stage
Hailing the new grandmaster chosen to write this page
Charting the course through culture’s ever-shifting rage
The seasoned scholar elected to unravel tradition’s cage
Reciting ceremonial vows to welcome the unfolding age

We search for signs that will name this age
And stamp this conductor as a worthy sage
Entrusted with the keys to this ever morphing cage
Where burnished bars cast shadows upon the stage
As theory and dream present the drama of education’s rage
Freeing canonized doctrine from the yellowed page

Tradition and reason grappling on the page
Molding a myth for the forthcoming age
Ridding us of limits imposed by last century’s rage
Today we spice old chestnuts with freshly ground sage
Stirring a cauldron of learning bubbling on the stage
Smudging ivied walls, transforming the cage

Wrapping seasoned scholars in an evolving cage
Where the jaded eyes of history redact every page
Today we add a link to the story told on stage
Choreographing polished steps for the dawning age
Playing new songs deciphered by the chosen sage
Together we board a raft of reason to ride the rapid’s rage

Avoiding white waters of tightly bridled rage
Steering good intentions around the confining cage
Conducting a symphonic overture for the next movement of Sage
Another name to be inscribed upon the page
Bring a rhythmic tempo for a kaleidoscopic age
As antiquity’s musings fret upon the stage

Singing arias of new aims voiced from center stage
Tatting the shimmering veil tween placid past and simmering rage
We fan the embers to fuel a flaming age
Ablaze with possibilities that inflate the billowing cage
Where stippled light splashes the gilded page
With huzzahs hailing the ascending mission of Sage

Today we move into an emerging age and shed the familiar cage
Imagination rampant on the stage, etching every page
With runes of ritual rage perfumed with the subtle scent of sage