On Thursday January 14th, 2016 the Hermetic Hour with host Poke Runyon

will present a commentary on and a reading of the Rubaiyat a Sufi poem

from medieval Persia by the mystic and astronomer Omar Khayyam

translated by Edward Fitzgerald and published in 1859. The Rubaiyat is

quintessentially romantic in style and content. It is said to reflect

the ancient cyrenaic hedonistic philosophy of Aristippus and extols a

libertine lifestyle in preference to piety. When I was a teenager I

needed to break away from Christian fundamentalism so I adopted the

Rubaiyat as my alternative to the Bible. I memorized the entire poem so

that I could quote seductive passages to Baptist virgins while drinking

beer on the beach at sunset. Ah! Those were the days! Or as Omar would

put it: "Alas that Spring should vanish with the rose, and youth's sweet

scented manuscript should close, the nightingale that in the branches

sang, ah whence and wither flown again who knows?" And so, if you yearn

to know "What Omar's moving finger writ, " then tune in and we will

inoculate you against excessive piety.