To save civilization, Charlemagne
entrusted you with his palace school. You
came through, melding Mediterranean
ancient text and art—rescuing those few
vital books for mankind—with Atlantic’s
modern works. You brought them structured grammar,
moved them through rhetoric and mathematics:
problems of jealous husbands and river
crossings. You led the Carolingian
Renaissance, training monks, those young princes,
and teaching the king himself. St. Martin
of Tours’ abbey your final residence,
did you ever laugh softly while resting,
recall forming our question mark, hooking
our great minds into doubting everything?
Roger Armbrust
January 24,
2013
