Apollo wears many hats. The physician Apollo puts his stethoscope to the heart of darkness; the poet Apollo heals through song; therapeutic Apollo, no matter what else, for he is the classic renaissance god, is always the healer, bringing strange joy to the psychically damaged. The good poet is Apollo's assistant and ward-nurse; his or her painless injections of magic lighten and brighten the darkest heart, the darkest mind. E.M. Schorb's book of pathologies and cures, Murderer's Day, reflects life on the mosquito coasts, the plains and foothills of Parnassus. There is less magic down here than there is up there, and the poet seems certain, as all poets must be, for wonder is their way, that there is even more magic beyond. Schorb hopes that his little missal/missile shines with truth and reflects his faith that, although it is dark down here, we are all going into a world of light.
