In the Year of the Dragon
The Lion fell:
Exhausted, confused,
Lost in the thickening mist of age and pain,
His brittle claws still deep in the flesh of his prey,
His iron, toothless jaw still clamped on Life’s throat.
On the threshold of a new millennium
His laugh echoing faintly into oblivion,
His last breath mingling with the air:
Honor forgotten, not faded.
Duty forgotten, not forsaken.
Family forgotten, still family.
Embarking on the 86th year of his living
He stopped:
The earth cradled the lion cub in her arms,
Silencing his roar, hushing his pain,
Rocking him gently into a new world of duty,
A new journey of wonder.
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We hope you will join us in The Imaginative Conservative community. The Imaginative Conservative is an online journal for those who seek the True, the Good and the Beautiful. We address culture, liberal learning, politics, political economy, literature, the arts, and the American Republic in the tradition of Russell Kirk, T.S. Eliot, Edmund Burke, Irving Babbitt, Wilhelm Roepke, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver, M.E. Bradford, Eric Voegelin, Christopher Dawson, Paul Elmer More, and other leaders of Imaginative Conservatism. Some conservatives may look at the state of Western culture and the American Republic and see a huge dark cloud which seems ready to unleash a storm that may well wash away what we most treasure of our inherited ways. Others focus on the silver lining which may be found in the next generation of traditional conservatives who have been inspired by Dr. Kirk and his like. We hope that The Imaginative Conservative answers T.S. Eliot’s call to “redeem the time, redeem the dream.” The Imaginative Conservative offers to our families, our communities, and the Republic, a conservatism of hope, grace, charity, gratitude, and prayer.
Editor’s Note: The featured image “Dragon Striking Down Lion” by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
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