"Where Epics Fail": Yahia Lababidi's Magnum Opus (So Far)

The term ‘aphorism” comes from the Greek “Aphorismos”. Hippocrates is the first one known to use it-as the title of a book containing brief sketches of medical conditions and remedies. Over time the definition of aphorisms has evolved to its current one: a statement containing a general truth. I happen to believe though, that what we call aphorisms today are the earliest form of poetry. I cannot imagine longer poems with complex connected ideas evolving without a period where local...