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                         Cavafy’s Slight Angle to the Universe

          “…a Greek gentleman in a straw hat, standing absolutely
          motionless at a slight angle to the universe.”

      -C. S. Forster re C. P. Cavafy, quoted by Daniel Mendelsohn
            in C. P. Cavafy: Poems, Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets

Maybe Cavafy stands at an angle to the world
The universe presumably built aright
In order serviceable, as Milton says,
All of creation as a liturgy

We all stand at an angle to the world
Which wobbles in its orbit more than it ought
We altar servers tripping more than we ought
When we forget the angle of Consecration

Oh, yes, Cavafy stands at an angle to the world
And he is right to do so –
                                                   and so are we