ASH TO CLAY: Myths in the Debris

II. THE MIRAGE OF GOLDEN AGES

Are golden ages merely fevers before winter's frost,
Brief, shimmering ephemera before brightness is lost?

Is every soaring summit of human ambition 
a a precipice or lead-in to decline?
Isn't there any stable stronghold that can resist dark shades?
Is our sole remaining splendor flaunting our own decay?

Perhaps golden ages are like pyrite in our hands,
gilded, glittering fictions spun across the sinking sands.

Are grand illusions fabricated merely to mask our retreat,
while worms gnaw quietly at our tired, cancered feet?


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from _Let the waters be my witness: Messages about our watery world_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:   An inquiry whether humanity’s grand "golden ages" are merely fleeting illusions.

KEYWORDS:  cyclical transformations, historical debris, civilization and entropy, 
decay and renewal, mythmaking and meaning, existential impermanence, golden ages, 
ephemera, human ambition, pyrite dreams, impermanence, illusions, futility, disillusionment

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2011 in Shizuoka, Japan / Finished: 2026 in Shizuoka, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

> Note: This piece was partially generated with AI tools for styling and ideation; human editing was then applied.


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TRANSLATIONS

ESPAÑOL   https://www.tnewfields.info/es/ceniza-arcilla2.htm
NIHONGO   https://www.tnewfields.info/jp/hai-nendo2.htm 
ZHŌNGWÉN  https://www.tnewfields.info/zh/cong-huijin2.htm