I'm having fun reading CAS' attempts at haiku, how they lovingly embrace this beautiful Japanese tradition while altering its conventions for the flow of English words. He does a fantastic job expressing the spirit of scenes both earthly and otherworldly, in as few words as possible. But there is one haiku that confuses me. His "Feast of St. Anthony".

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Quote:

Birds of fable,
Phoenix, roc and simorg-anka,
Pecked my phantom-fruited table.

I'm nowhere near as educated as the other fine members of ED, so I was wondering if any of you might understand the meaning or references of this poem. Perhaps Dale, with his vast knowledge of literature and religion?

I know CAS was an admirer of Flaubert and his Temptation of St. Anthony, but this poem doesn't represent any scene from the book. In one scene the protagonist is shown a demonic illusion of a sumptuous feast, but no fabulous birds appear. And he is eventually visited by the Simorg-Anka, but she appears in a completely different scene. I wondered if this poem was related to the actual religious Feast of St. Anthony, but I can't find any information linking any mythical birds to the festival. What do you fellows make of this poem?

Hespire, you brought much ot the table here, and I have almost nothing to add; just a probably irrelevant bit: the temptations of St. Anthony are recounted in a very ancient work written soon after the saint's death; the Life is by St. Athanasius. It's in a volume published in the Paulist Press "Classics of Western Spirituality" series.