Best Greece Poems
Love of truth
the very light of Greece
A peninsula thrust out
like a bony hand,
‘God-tormented Greece,’
Zeus exclaimed,
“I shall give man ‘an evil,’ as the price of fire:
They will clasp destruction with laughter of desire.”
The Gods live on-even though obscure.
Fate rules them too, as Zeus learns
the heroes must die; and the greater
the heroism the earlier the death.
Greece being, itself so divided
between the rational and irrational,
between logic and instinct,
between the scientific and the magical,
between the state of self possession
and that of being possessed,
and one can continue……
between symmetry and diversity,
between the recognition of limits
and the pursuit of the limitless,
between restraint and vaulting ambitions,
or hubris, Pythagoras in all his wisdom
could achieve no resolution or harmonia.
Of all these diverse elements, what was
greatest in him, and in Greece,
was the recognition of these conflicts
for what they were…….
that by grappling with them
a better order in life might then arise.
A CLASSIC SUMMER IN GREECE
Viciousness and mystery erupt on arid soil.
Summer heat and idle time can make the spirits boil.
Languishing in stuffy rooms with very little sleep--
Night time flickers of the light-- imagination leaps.
Heat that beckons times long past invade a fevered head—
Athena pleases lovers mid her goddess silken bed,
Grecian legs march bravely –- prelude Olympian races--
Soldiers dream they sail away to see exotic places.
Heat waves shimmer landscape –men will do what they are told--
Spearborn soldiers helmeted sing down a dusty road.
Tho in mind they join their lovers whispering by the sea,
Drink of mountain waters --rest their head on sweetheart’s knee
Helen, when she sailed away –a wayward selfish wife
Without a backward glance she risked the cost of human life--
Was it the heat that made her crazed to do this foolish thing?
A fit of summer boredom could create this witless fling.
Autumn winds are blowing now-- Troy’s nights turn cool and fair--
Does Paris try to ditch her --as naked Helen combs her hair--
Does Hector tell his brother--get this woman out of here--
Does Helen beg to stay-- and tell her lover not to fear?
Heat can play the brain and make it dance a backward tune--
Clarity as sun tricks down—repeats a former June,
Perhaps there is a lesson learned from heat that sears the soul--
Summertime romance will write us each a tragic role.
Victoria Anderson Throop ©
1/11/13
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.
There once lived a lady in Greece
Who was always in trouble with police
Walking around nude
Like a cow she mooed
Offering young Greeks a taste of her t(r)eats
© Jack Ellison 2015
My favorite legend still has salt on it,
white freckles left from the sea of Colchis.
If you search carefully,
you might even find a whisp of golden byssus
slipping into your palm.
Chart laid out,
course set for the ram of Phrixus;
fleece beyond the friendly sea
one must brave the clashing rocks.
The gods will have their game,
but none can tame Lord Jason
but Medea,
daughter of Aeëtes,
high priestess of the temple,
beloved niece of Circe, who turned all men to beasts.
How many months at sea,
men slowly turning bronze behind the oars,
only men for company and out sight of shore.
How they must have bathed in the sea
as bare as fish
and just as quick and shining.
How well they mastered ropes and sweat,
muscles wrapped around their bones.
Who remembers who mended the sail?
No one. Yet on they sailed!
March 3rd 2020
Contest: Favorite Legend
Sponsor: Chantelle Anne Cooke
Ancient arenas
Dot valleys of green
Olive tree lined
Stoic serene
Gone is the echo
The sounds of the play
Done is the suffering
Of Antigone
Daughter of Gods
Caring and kind
Her brother’s keeper
Loyal to die
Ancient arenas
Magical myths
Beautiful backdrop
For the nymph I am with
Headstrong and honest
Gorgeous green eyed
Intriguing Igoné
Daughter divine
Keeper of many
Righteous and kind
Incredible Igoné
Daughter of mine
October 2018
Peloponnesus
Cont'd from Minotaur: Part I
When Theseus arrived in Crete,
he met a lovely maid.
She knew what death awaited him
and hurried to his aid.
She slipped a spool of silky thread
into his hands and said:
"Use this to leave the maze, my friend."
And then the maiden fled.
When Theseus was in the maze,
he did not hesitate.
With every step he rolled his spool,
prepared to face his fate.
He knew this was the easy part:
the worst was yet to come.
And suddenly he heard a snort
which would have made you numb.
He hid behind a rock and saw
the Minotaur come near.
Then Theseus jumped on its back
forgetting all his fear.
He closed his eyes, while hanging on,
and let the monster dash
through every path until it fell
with an enormous crash.
The angry Minotaur got up
and rumbled on again,
but it could not shake Theseus:
it tried, but all in vain.
It stumbled and collapsed for good:
this had been quite a ride.
Exhausted by the grueling race,
the monster heaved and died.
Then Theseus got off its back:
he held the maiden's thread.
The spool was almost threadless now,
and so he marched ahead.
He rolled the thread back on the spool
and followed where it lay.
It was not long before he spied
the blinding light of day.
When Minos saw bold Theseus
emerge without a scratch,
he said: "In all the land of Greece,
I know, you have no match.
Because you've overcome the odds
and have preserved your life,
I want to give you, if you wish,
my daughter for a wife."
But Theseus replied: "Oh, king,
the only wife for me
can be the one who saved my life:
the maid who set me free."
King Minos answered: "You're in luck:
my daughter is that maid.
You've won her heart; please take her home,
and Athens' debt is paid.
And then the maid herself came out.
"We meet again," she said.
"I'm Ariadne, your new bride."
And so the two were wed.
The time has come to end the tale
of how a vengeful king
was overcome by love, a spool
and Ariadne's string.
I
You all know her, love her, enjoy them poems
Above all, a people-person, with three homes
I mean home-countries: first is Greece, Jenn's birth
Then there's England, UK: a must for mirth or rebirth
Third, and where I feel her close, South Africa
We share citizenship in RSA, of Nelson Mandela
But Jennifer also reads and enjoys Christopher
And you, you, and also YOU: hats off to her
She visited my poems and left her pixie-dust all o'er
Such generous comments, accolades for my poems
I could send more to each of her homes
Seriously, I find joy in saying thanks Poet Proxenos
For her unique ways to encourage each of us
She loves people, and peace, greets with EIREENE
As with my shalom-shalom, wholesomeness & healing
Are conveyed by our special words and sayings
Jennifer P, Joe D, Vijay P, George (Mrs V): blessings! My "prayings"
II
Thanks Jennifer Proxenos for writing such encouraging and generous (my cup runs over, per Psalm 23) comments today, Friday, 29 April, 2022. shalom!
A bit of dried bread
and a cell - a basket full
of prayers and tears.
Here there's room
for the entire humankind.
There was a king in ancient Greece,
and Minos was his name.
His kingdom was an island — Crete.
Enormous was his fame.
In Athens ruled another king
he too — a mighty one.
And once he was the gracious host
of Minos' only son.
The lad was sent by Athens' king
to hunt a boar so wild
that with its deadly tusks it gored
king Minos' hapless child.
For such mistreatment of a guest
and to avenge his son
King Minos' army went to war
which soon the Cretans won.
To punish Athens and its king
the angry Minos said
that Athens would not be destroyed
if it would pay instead.
The payment that he had in mind
would make your heart stand still.
He wanted neither jewels nor gold:
of that he'd had his fill.
He said that every single year
they'd have to send to Crete
a youth from Athens, like his son,
the Minotaur to meet.
Who was the Minotaur, you ask?
He was a monstrous beast —
half-bull half-man. On human flesh
the Minotaur would feast.
King Minos kept the Minotaur
in an enormous maze
with many paths and dank dead ends:
you'd wander there for days.
But no one ever found the way
out of this horrid place
because the Minotaur was bound
to meet you face-to-face.
The youth that Athens picked to die
was a courageous lad.
His name was Theseus the bold,
and all his friends were sad.
He said: "I'll go and face the beast:
who knows, I might survive.
I've got to use my wits, and then
I will come back alive."
LORD, I humbly greet You, early this new day, a Tuesday in May
I return to my prayer list with "N" countries, from Netherlands to Norway
Adoration is the FIRST STEP (one way to PRAY) using "A-C-T-S"
The letters, not the word, "A" for adoring Him, God IS (Love) & LORD of lords
The "C" is for confession of sins. Then "T"hanksgiving and "S"upplication
I intercede, Abba-Father, for peoples in LOCKDOWN - quarantine as The virus
Called the common "Corona," a "garland" with aura, but what a CRISIS
The world has never been as connected & as SHUTDOWN for business!
Fear is everywhere, we rebuke it in Jesus' name, to Him we are most dear
Bless the global family, from islands to former Empires, praying together
For former Holland, Namibia, Nauru, Niger, Nigeria, some named "North"
One changed to Eswatini (Swaziland, Greece ... in my "E" and "G" lists)
Last but certainly not least, North Macedonia, linked to Alexander the Great
LORD, show mercy to us all, in Jesus' Name, to those "named and unnamed"
NOTE: I have not structured this form with iambic feet or any other meter. I found this form suits my faith in Jesus as LORD, closest to how I feel: SONnet
Santorini, Greece
I see a sunny bedroom where almost
everything is Santorini blue.
Our clothes, scattered everywhere.
And me, asleep, under a silky
sheet!
Your chest, my heavenly,sweet pillow,
a cherished and memory to keep.
Our vast window can be seen with
Santorini and those great,blue domes
peeking in.
The full moon lights the room with
tenderness, as each night and day
again with my love for you begins.
5/2/2023
...The blade sunk deep and blood did spurt,
flesh of a goddess defiled,
Enktantas shrieked, fell to his knees,
but Ananke only smiled.
“I feel it draining out of me,
the force of life slipping away…
Oh, thank you for releasing me…”
those were the last words she did say.
She collapsed there, down to the ground,
the great scroll just fell to the dirt,
and seemed to rot before his eyes,
until naught but ash were its words.
And from outside the Fates came in,
looking lost, and unsure of things,
they just started with quite confused eyes
where their mother lay smiling.
Enktantas beat a quick retreat,
not knowing what they might do next,
until the voice came loud again,
“Now by your own choice you’ll attest.
“It’s meant that you should all know Choice,
though you weren’t ready until now.
Your destinies will be your own,
and now constrained again, I vow.”
Then finally the voice was gone,
the young man no longer insane,
there was power beyond the gods,
and Free Will was part of His game.
Winter’s chill pierces my frail heart
My shallow breath could cease,
Ere spring arrives, I may depart
For the sunny islands of Greece.
Beautiful Kythira
Cenozoic era
Lovely riviera
I dream of the Aegean Sea,
Winter’s chill so depresses me.
[Quietus]
written February 4, 2022