Best Sophocles Poems
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. The word is love.”
Sophocles, Greek Poet
When love meets your silhouette at twilight,
heart unfurls chamomile flowers so bright,
flickering sunset hues in eloquence,
to veil greying grief in rose elegance..
Life when harmonized with bronze strings of bliss;
the charming cadence of soul's ardent kiss,
paints a picturesque sea of lilac sky,
where mauve threads mirror day-dreams, soaring high.
So let this sonorous pilgrim embrace,
silence that serenades in moon-wrapped grace.
This musical devotion shared so dear,
shall unchain the flaming fears tangled near.
I'm weaving hope from syllables of peace~
and crippled thoughts, bleeding ink does release.
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. The word is love." Sophocles, Greek Poet
In a garden of whispering twilight
Silent love story swiftly sprouts and grows
The lilies sway with secrets each dark night
Their fragrance drifts in the moonlight and flows
The daisies tell of innocence in dreams
Where the sun's golden fingers cast forth rays
Those shy violets lie next to a stream
Beneath the wispy, weeping willow's ways
Rich, regal orchids in bold colors bright
Perfumed jasmine lingering like a sigh
Recites verses of passion day 'til night
Singing love's endurance under the sky
Wander through this garden, let your heart stray
Where poetry of flowers bloom each day
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. The word is love."
Sophocles, Greek Poet
If love was a metaphor for flowers,
our souls would rejoice in April showers.
Foundations nurtured by amorous hands,
would prepare rainbow colours on bland lands.
Romance of spring would bloom like daffodils,
yellow, white and gold shades of zealot thrills.
Solace of tulips would soothe in fresh air,
red, orange and pink tones dancing with flair.
Lovers of the sun would worship its zeal,
as its selfless nature helps cold buds heal.
When stalks start to wilt from ardent burdens,
sow new seeds to rejuvenate gardens.
Life can be toxic, breeding weeds like hate.
To attract bees, spread nectar to ease fate.
Oh, Parthenon,*
Sublime aesthetic structure,
Embodiment of unparalleled elegance,
Incarnation of history, philosophy, and sciences,
Everlasting beacon of human civilization,
Glorification of architecture,
Pride of the Western world
You, the deathless temple of Athena,
Undeniably, it reflects the harmonious blending:
Of matter with the form,
Of man with God,
Of the temporal with the eternal.
In you, one may easily discern:
The drama of Sophocles,
The wisdom of Socrates,
The reason of Plato, and
The logic of Aristotle incorporated
Into
The ageless white marble, that the
Everlasting mountain of Pendelikon so
Generously has offered
And
The skilled hands of Phidias and Ictinus,
So expertly have shaped, into a
Never-ending hymn of worldly beauty,
Ascending to the heavens of perfection
As a thanksgiving to the wisdom of the divine and as
A never-dying monument to human creativity and
Understanding
Oh, Parthenon, before your perpetual magnificence,
Humbly I bow!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
13 JANUARY 2013
*One of the crowning monuments of the world and, unquestionably,
one of the finest is the Parthenon, the ancient temple of Athena, daughter of
Zeus, Goddess of wisdom.
Built between 447 and 438 B.C. during the Archonship of Pericles on the most
prominent spot of the Acropolis- a rocky hill of 158 meters above sea level-
Parthenon has dominated since then with its extraordinary architectural splendor, not only in the land of Attica and the rest of Greece but also, one may say, the mind and the soul of the entire world!
Waiting in line,
Before the ATM of closed banks for 60 Euros to withdraw under the scourging sun
Old and invalid people are submitted to this daily torture, constantly moaning, for Our country’s suffering and for our own devastation,
While twenty-seven percent the unemployment has climbed
Forty percent the salaries and pensions went down and twenty percent the taxes up
Rendering hundreds of thousands of families poor with no money to feed themselves And their children
When
Close to one hundred thousand of our countrymen have attempted suicide of whom Ten thousand, unfortunately, have succeeded in ending their lives only in five years Because of the ruinous austerity measures taken to pay Greece's lenders
Parthenon, is mourning Democracy's assassination in the place of its birth
By the mighty creditors that suck the blood out of our veins
The Greek government in agony has turn to our allies for help to restore our Economy and thus to prevent the catastrophe that is approaching,
But the creditors, most of them anyway, with Germany leading the way,
To obliterate Greece wish with their unbearable and inhuman terms they have set
As though were our enemies and not our partners, because
Humanity has been lost in their hearts and only for them the profit counts
And I, one of the suffering Greeks, that shares the same lot as any,
In anxiety, a few words try to arrange for the tragedy of Greece to illustrate as a New Euripides or Sophocles but to no avail,
So I am waiting in line under the scourging sun, hoping my turn to come,
The sixty Euros, if am lucky, to get into my hands before the AMT is empty!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
15 JULY 2015
Oh, ancient Greece,
How much you have filled my soul.
The aesthetics of your kind,
Are more than satisfied
By your beautiful eyes.
The epics of grace,
Odysseus and Helen’s sublime face.
The war between two cities,
And a tale of returning to beauty.
The dialectic of Socrates trial,
The Christ before Christ on clouds much higher.
The dialogues devoted to supreme justice,
By Plato’s divine universals.
Aristotle’s poetics devoted to the epics,
And particulars brought by the golden ethical’s.
Sappho and her poetry,
Herodotus and a tale of histories.
The land of marble devoted to democracy,
The Spartan grandeur and Athenian cultured society.
The Oedipus complex brought to Sophocles.
Vengeful acts by Media for adultery.
I sing joy to all the tragedies,
Aeschylus and the dance of the Eumenides.
The Minoan society and the island of Crete,
Greek culture and so much to keep.
Athena the bright eyed goddess of wisdom,
Came of Zeus, our lord of Jupiter.
Juno and her rivals in the kingdom,
Brought us tales of jealousy for the future.
The pre-Socratics of philosophy,
Thales, Heracleitus, and Anaximenes.
The golden verses of Pythagoras,
And the sophist named Protagoras.
Aristotle’s pupil brought grandeur to the dream,
Alexander the great extended the means.
The logic, the literature, and the home of philosophy,
Mythology, and the tragedies, histories of epic poetry.
The things that have been and will always be,
I will always remember the glory that was Greece.
Throughout the years of bars and fences, several things kept me from falling
My Faith in God, My Mom, My Writing...and, that Freedom Was Always Calling
The nightmare started in "93", shipped off to do a second bid
I knew my mother was hurting deeply from all of the pain her silence hid
Downstate was another dagger, the lonely days, the nights, the "Draft"
In times of peace the seagulls shrieking...and, I could have sworn at me they laughed
Then came Green Haven/the pain continued; those forty months in just a cell
Abundant vermin, to live determined...where most Co's were scarred as well
College courses would keep me focused, mixing with others who sought degrees
To be well rounded my reading varied from Og Mandino to Sophocles
All was good, then times grew darker, by "95" my health had waned
Some forsook me while others wondered how my Trust in God remained
On bended knees I prayed this daily..."Not my will be done, but thine"
Then I was showed One set of "Footprints" which I knew could not be mine
Deliverance came, yes things got better; I thought my sorrows were finally gone
Until I left to live in Fishkill, which in truth was Matteawan
Intellectually I was their equal, they had no choice, but to grin and bear it
For, I knew their books, their words, their history...and many things deemed esoteric
Bogus tickets, the box, harassment, they thought I'd fold from all the stress
Still, what would I be if I didn't suffer?...a spineless man who acquiesced
People have asked me how I survived it, a prison life sometimes appalling
I inhaled deeply, and finally told them...That Freedom Was Always Calling
Freedom Was Always Calling by Poetiq1der aka Don Simmons
Theatre
ancient, organic
previewing, staging, performing
Sophocles, Chekhov, Ray, Tarantino
filming, screening, releasing
modern, edited
Cinema.
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Date: 22 / 10 / 2016
The Three Pearls of Life
A poem about the three princesses of my life, inspired by Ancient Greek Wisdom
S, M and M are the three pearls of my existence
Giving my poor life, God’s harmonious essence
As they kindly provide my soul with pure energy
To travel along the pathways of flowing serenity
For they taught me how to be really better
As my troubled psyche strives to travel
Searching for places to eventually go
And wicked habits to quickly forego
I pray to Him to make them always happy
For I truly love them all, to heaven’s eternity
As their sentiments rain upon me all the time
Making my emotions never to take a slow stride
Come on my beautiful princesses, rejoice,
Let happiness be your only life’s choice
For I need you more than my continuous breath
As you pacify my long journeys upon this Earth
Always taking into deep consideration the meaning of the following ancient Greek Sayings:
Anaxagoras: ‘The seed of everything is in everything else’.
Aristotle: ‘Family is the cell of life’.
Pythagoras: ‘Love of husband and wife is requisite for parentage on its highest plane’;
Seven Sages: ‘Honor your family’. ‘Love the people you feed’. ‘Be kind to your own people’. ‘Govern and protect your family’.
Sophocles: ‘Be beneficial to others with what you have and what you can; it’s your most kind act’.
Turning into an angelic beast,
Here is the ugly Narcissist....
For others! She cared least,
Here's the ugly Narcissist.
When the plot of life got revealed,
She had a role to lead.
Sanguine She, was now so turbid,
Like Sophocles! Hard to get rid.
But it doesn't end here! still some to indite,
the lost rhyme and a will to fight.....
With a lesson, not to hold it with Arms,
Took birth a new Epigram.
Arrival of an elate metre of vicissitude,
came a wave of valedictory for turpitude.
She breathed out of that tearful cyst....
Citherns and Citoles singing "You! No more a Narcissist".
Coffining the corpse of heart,
She ambled on a new start.
Towards Quibla!! Hearkening to a Dole above,
reached a Kingdom, with the blind wind's shove.
On the Schrezo of Hyades,
Condoning the satyr envoy of bliss.
In the elfin's grot ! To meet Her,
Came someone, with a Scepter.
"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. The word is love." Sophocles, Greek Poet
How is the tender word love felt and seen,
words have many meanings what does love mean?
Love can always be heart warming and viewed,
as we enjoy a meal with loving food.
A funny laugh is a great attitude,
it sure can turn around your day and mood.
Love and kindness puts a stop to a feud,
saying bad words and your mouth should be glued.
All your friends and family should include,
loving days with plenty of gratitude.
Love can be great to set everyone free,
this is uniquely for you and for me.
No more weight now to bear we can just flee,
let's fly free like a little yellow bee.
Is there woman alive who loves engineer’s brain?
Seems like all that we do is cause pain,
One who jumps to his feet at cry “This doesn’t work!”
But solutions just mean that somehow he’s a jerk.
Was her painful complaint not a cry out for aid,
Would-be hero not trying to please?
Not a chance that her friend even wants to get paid
Or the praise that’s still owed Sophocles.
Oh yes I forget it is sharing she wants,
Not the stuff that I know how to do,
It’s like my generosity’s just heard as taunts,
One thing sure lads, this night will be blue.
I promise you ladies, I’d like your assist,
I’ve paint bucket and brush for your fist,
Though I own my own feelings and share on a dare
It still seems that the ledger’s not square.
My old age creeping up on me, aches up and down
Seems each day I feel more like a clown!
But dementia could still spell an end to this plane,
After that there’s no need to explain.
Brian Johnston
January 14, 2016
Life’s a river; reading riddles it flows.
In morn, he crawls, tiptoeing like a leech,
Falling - kneeling, crawling in fours, he goes,
Enters he second stage, all love to reach,
Swiftly rising, in twos he walks, cooing
Mysteries of life and gaily, dancing;
Yet seeing only scenes that do wooing,
Steadily he runs, glancing and prancing;
Thereby, not seeing the tragic down fall,
Enters he his third stage and walks on threes,
Rising sky high but beginning to crawl
In vast pool of sea, being lulled by breeze.
Every step he keeps, mysteries he meets,
Sounding, silent; merrily all he greets.
ALL YOURS (Jan 29) Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Brian Strand
*A 4th Place* in the following contest (judged on Dec. 31, 2020)
Syllable count: 10 syllables in each line (Ref: https://www.howmanysyllables.com/syllable_counter
Rhyming scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Dec. 5, 2020
Lifes mysteries Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: John Hamilton
Inspiration from Sophocles' King Oedipus and my own poem “Life is a River” (published in 2016)
Is it a new phenomenon,
Known to the world
Through Beckett and Camus?
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Aegean.
Oedipus, Bhartrhari, Buddha—all,
Over a period of intense suffering,
Learnt to cope with it,
Each resorting to a different praxis.
King Dasaratha perhaps thought
He knew—until a moment came,
When no knowledge,
No cut-and-dried theory,
No ready-made solution
Could possibly help.
He succumbed.
Kierkegaard could see.
Husserl could show.
Eliot could feel.
Frankl could cope with.
Christ had known.
— R. V. Ram
‘One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.’
- Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
While we’re in the vertiginous first throws
of being in love, Cupid across bows
fired seemingly randomly, finding rows
of fertile soil for life’s troubles—pain mows.
People eager to throw caution to t’ wind,
immersed in the unknown, they often sinned.
The hasty promises will be rescind;
impossible dreams reluctantly binned.
There’s no more excruciating pain, true,
than unrequited love—it leaves us blue.
Mesmerised by couples seemingly through
mutual understanding: trust accrue.
We’ve been loved; given freely of our love.
We are rich beyond measure and above.