The Cave of Darkness (Ghar il Kbir ((Malta 11/2001))
The Cave of Darkness (Ghar il-Kbir ((Malta—11/2001))
Advance: of most places I’ve traveled in the world [683,000-miles throughout], Malta has been for the most part, always on my top-ten list, of all-round places to go. It has a ting of everything. Ghar Dalam, otherwise known as the ‘Cave of Darkness,’ was used for habitation by prehistoric man, 5000 BC, and animals, and thereafter. There have been found human bones and teeth in the cave, as well as a gathering of animal bones from time immemorial. There also is a legend of a sea creature that surfaced and seemed to live within this area (in the 17th century). I had written a trilogy of the ‘Tiamat.’ In one of the books I used this cave [not in name] as a backdrop for the story. It is huge, and quite the picture for a living environment. In l729, there was an engraving done of the cave life in Ghar il-Kbir, published in Vol. 62. No 72, in “La Galerie…” of which 66-volums are combined. The point being, the engraving is attributed to Pieter Van der Aa, 1712, and I’ve seen this engraving, it had to be done on site, thus the artist saw the small group of people perhaps that remained in the cave. The etching is fanciful, thus I’d think he perked it up, for whatever reasons. It seems to me he made the cave larger in the picture. Although the cave is large with sections; larger and smaller caverns attached to it. The faces on the folks within the engraving are flat, no smiles etc. As I had checked this out further, I had found conceivably there was a group of folks living in the cave between 1665 and 1680 AD. But the record is not vivid by any mean; and having said all this, here is my little poem to go along with this over zealous Advance:
The Poem:
I could get no fit idea—of the
Proportion of the cave, merely
By the patch of light from my
Flashlight
I was surrounded by limestone
And I felt a disadvantage—a few
More feet within the cave the roof
Began to rise—
A gentle slope—then suddenly….
My eyes had become adjusted
To the caves darkness—the oily
Glaring walls around me; cautiously
I descended…
—The floor of the cave became
Nearly level, but the tide of dark
Shadows came afresh, unnoticed by
Others—
But penetrating…to me.
Something, long ago had lived here,
Lived in this grand grotto—;
My treasures were in: whom! They were.
And then came the bones!...
Bones, massive bones; all about—
Dazzling hues, in the petrified bones;
200,000-years old: dwarf elephants,
And hypodermis’…
Wolfs and bears, giant swans,
Deer—all appeared to be here; and
From European stock; sacrifices or
Diner, they were all here: my
Treasure.
#778 7/28/2005
Poet Dennis Siluk see his web site at http://dennissiluk.tripod.com or his books at most any book dealers, perhaps, http://www.abe.com