I think this one is about losing religion. The first line supports this quite easily. The second line provides an image - the ripple effect - as though someone has introduced doubt and challenged the faith. The final line, backward beaconing, is best analyzed, well, backwards. A beacon is a signal fire, it gives direction and hope, yet the speaker here says it's backward. Whatever caused the ripple is a backward beacon. Now what caused the ripple? Was it the punch drunk apostate, in other words, a flaming atheist? Or is the punch-drunk apostate what the speaker is becoming? Either interpretation works for me.
You are on the right track Manna. Very close.
Or is the punch-drunk apostate what the speaker is becoming?
yes!
and like a boxer, he drops to the mat
and the mat is myth
so he re-enters his myth
to come to his own understandings
rather than his inherited ones
he no longer rejects the myth, completely
and never did
but now he ventures forth into that realm
as a free man
to wander around and interpret the stories and meanings
his way
not the "combines" way as McMurphy might put it
in One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest.
As you suggest, the beacon is a beacon of hope
and it shines from the past
some ancient poets and story tellers
created these stories
and I sense many of those messages are evergreen
so I drop
in
to ripple
round (to become complete)
in my attempt to know myself
and their wisdom
their view
their connections and ways
and to see if their vision
is my view.
I might add, Manna, that my interpretation of an apostate isn't one who rejects their inherited religion, but rather one who rejects the inherited interpretation of his religion/myth. So to me, the position of apostate, that informed yet independent view/perspective is necessary in what Jung might call "the process of individuation"; becoming your own person.
And they say poetry should not be explained by the author!
Never mind. I seep mistakes.
Thanks for the feedback, Manna, Matj
"Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart." San Juan de la Cruz.