Caravaggio's Dagger: A pursuit of right action

Many come to evil; many others search for a different way to be. Animated by the work of Caravaggio, Hendrik Slegtenhorst’s poems inquire, what is a pursuit of right action?

Caravaggio, the murderous, brilliant 16th-century painter, depicted the decapitation of John the Baptist at the moment the act is botched: jugular severed, head attached, the saint in agony – an exemplification of humanity’s predilections.

Early on, Slegtenhorst accepted Somerset Maugham’s admonition of the error of adopt...