Tutankhaten

When I first started writing poetry in my late teens, I was into "angst" poetry, chronicling the trials and tribulations of being young. Once I started teaching, in my twenties, my poetry took a more romantic turn. I don't mean romantic in terms of romance, but more in terms of an historical romanticism. Looking more closely at historical figures, I was touched by some of their lives as well as their deaths.

I recently found a book of this poetry, and have tried to see whether any of it was worth salvaging, or whether it should remain as a road sign to my youth. The poem I posted last night, I felt, with a little revision, still had something to say. I feel the same way about the poem I am posting tonight. The last time there was a major Tutankhamun exhibit was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in the 1970's I visited that exhibition, then later on, researched some of the prayers that Tutankhamun's father, Amenophis IV (Akhnaten) wrote to the sun disc, Aten. He had, for a few years, changed the face of ancient Egyptian religion, moving the capital to Tell el-Amarna. The priests of Amun Ra rebelled, and when Akhnaten died, forced Tutankhamun (originally named Tutankaten) to bring the capital back to Luxor, the city sacred to Amun.

I wrote this poem in the spirit of the prayers Akhnaten wrote to Aten. Some historians believe that Tut's lapse into his father's religion cost him his life.

Tutankhamun
Christopher Bogart

Still the softly sweeping sands.
Harness Ra within the sky.
Turn back Hapi’s gentle flow.
Re-teach Horus how to fly.

Take a child, nine tender years.
Place on his head the Double Crown.
Cloak him in two thousand years.
Try not to let it weigh him down.

Smother all his boyish dreams
Of Aten’s rays of living love.
Amun’s hawks in swiftest flight
Soon will outstrip and crush the dove.

Let him shiver through the nights.
Give him cause to quake in fear.
Challenge him to be a god,
Yet keep his manhood from drawing near.

Still the softly sweeping sands.
Reteach Horus how to fly.
Place poison on a needle’s tip;
And teach a pharaoh how to die.