Long Ithaca Poems
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So once again, with grim countenance, the ship sailed on with all bemoaning their woes
Till calm seas prevailed, with balmy sun, sweet zephyr song, they came to Helios' shores.
Helios, calm god of the day, smiled upon the lads, gave of his land free rein, but with a caveat-
Helios pride was his golden herd, indolent and fat,"Do what you will, but don't touch that"
Well, as was their wont, like a terrible refrain, full-weathered from woes and want, but yet unwise,
The crew, overcome by gluttonous greed, slaughtered a heifer, for raucous feast, not sacrifice.
Wild was Helios at this blatant deceit, with terrible curse, banished them all, to wander once again.
So with Helios' curse (and Neptune's help), the ship was tossed and soon lost, all crew were slain.
It was Odysseus alone who was alive, afloat on flotsam, floating about, with fervent wish of death
But sweet surcease was not his lot, more plight was his fate - his tryst was due with Charybdis yet.
Perhaps Scylla was a better bet, in it's slavering jaws a definite death, I think he'd rather have it
But caught he was in Charybdis' thrall, a vortex which ate him whole, and threw him out as spit.
Past the maelstrom's outer whirl was our hero tossed clinging to life's last hope, verily a straw
Floated, the wasted carricature of a man, denied of food and water, no sustenance he could draw.
But perchance the Gods smiled on him, wearied of their devious, puerile games going too long
Odysseus fell on land once more, where restored were life and limb, bewitched by Calypso's song.
Now Odysseus, all said and done, was a man vulnerable to worldly women's wanton wiles
And Calypso was full besot with our hero's lusty frame, his wit, his deeds and charming smiles.
For seven years did he taste bliss, ensconced in Calypso's arms with thought of home amiss
But one day, after seven years, did Caypso, with heavy heart, let him go on pleas of our Hermes.
From Calypso's isle did Odysseus sail on raft, through storm, as was now his habit, and came to Sceria
Where Nausicca, on Athena's urge, gave succor, till he sailed with Phaecians who had trade with Sumeria
The Phaecian ships soon landed Odysseus on fair Ithacan shores where Penelope had travail,
But my dear laddies, I must hie hence, for the Dawn is nigh, of Penelope and Suitors, is another tale.
Concluded
For ages, probably for prolonged ages
They have been waiting for the ecstatic pearl
Collages of pomegranates in bends and edges
Are on the toes to get into the whirl
For ages and ages the two hungry clouds
Have nurtured their myriad colours
Explosion of passion in retiring from the shrouds
Two fantasizes colliding in tremor
For ages and ages the starving crimson words
With the pen and paper set dance-like
Waited in the molecules of curve in the swords
Tonight they are getting into the crushing of psyche
Touches of silk and strokes of electrons
The birds at mad bites into the pineapple
Inbox is flooding with cloud nine neurons
Moments mesmerized in moonlit maple
The horses from Harappa racing fast
The fountain opens its wonderful floodgate
The ship tossing along with the mast
Tumultuous tempest in the Ithaca strait
Go go go Owl plunder your moon
Let the black beauty put on maroon
________________________________________________________
July 31, 2016
(Dedication: For Demetrios Trifiatis)
Troy and sure war, Trojans and Greeks;
Report mad flaws -- rouse warriors' peak;
On for ten years, on both sides dwell;
Yes tear for tear, yes death did well!
Urge firms glory, urge frames action;
Love of country, love of duty;
Yield to vain sire, yield to grand thought;
See siege and fire, see plan and plot;
Sense raging seas, sense warring ways;
Etch destiny, etch faraway;
Sacred code free, sacred code slay!
One decade's scheme, one decade's stray;
Reach for war themes, reach for home sway.
One brave man knows; one brave heart grows;
Dare siege bold war, dare wood horse show;
Yes far from kin, yes far from home;
Struggles seek win, struggles find roam;
Seek warrior's end, seek journey's rest;
Endless this blend, endless this quest;
Unleash wise sense, unleash clear scan;
Succeed suspense, succeed ascend.
Ithaca prompts, Ithaca sighs;
Trust warring romps, trust homeward cry;
Heed the musings, heed the warnings;
Apt questioning, apt answering;
Choice brought your here, choice takes you there;
Apply good cheer, apply heart's care!
Calm and stern poise, calm and brave flight;
Apply sure voice, apply fond sight;
Love takes you where? Love brought you here?
Live your harsh fare, live your prized spheres;
Survive trials' glare, survive life's tears.
Yes shrewd and brave, yes calm and clear;
Opt tact that saves, opt plan that steers;
Use fool and knave, use con and cheer!
Home floods your heart, home calls your face;
Offer pure art, offer sure trace;
Mind what you find, mind what you meet;
Effort you bind, effort you greet.
Hero of fate, hero of old;
Echoes unbraid, echoes unfold;
Realms of Greek yore, realms of Homer;
Old tales before, old times yonder.
Leon Enriquez
13 Mar 2014
Singapore
O muse ... the lauded poet Homer called
to Odysseys 'cross time enthralled
please tell the tale of warriors lost
of Troy's fall, of heart and of pride.
'cross the vellum pressed, Homer cried.
"Set course for Greece and damn the cost,"
Odysseys on his black ship bawled
orders as his crew there oars hauled
for windless were the seas criss-crossed.
The Siren's sang and woe betide
the men who heard them died wide-eyed
as to the mast Odysseys tossed.
All with him died the tale recalled
on Ithaca the King arrived,
to battle for his Kingdom most lost;
his Queen to claim, his long lost bride
he'd win her now with bow well tried.
The scroll retold and was embossed.
I once said never, sure I’d outrun the weight that shaped my mother’s obese life;
yet, like Mother, food was my Calypso, it held me close, sirens singing songs of self-loathing.
at twenty-eight, I drifted far from home, three hundred pounds from who I’d been.
I faced the mirror like Odysseus sighting Ithaca after years of uncertainty,
and I confronted ego, my one-eyed Cyclops, whose glare kept me from seeing my truth.
the journey home meant leaving behind habits, islands where I’d lingered too long~
never say never echoed like Odysseus’ vow to crewmen convinced they’d never return.
I learned the body’s architecture can change when faith and courage steady life's helm again.
for forty years I’ve lived within the home I reclaimed, its walls earned and steady.
never say never means trusting the heart to navigate storms and still reach shore.
Now gather around, ye lusty lads, a tale I'll tell to thee
Of jealous Gods, monsters and ill-fated men who sailed the sea.
My tale is set in hoary times when fickle fate was by divine decree.
Then men were men who faced all odds, much sturdier than you or me.
It was the time when the Trozans fell, King Priam's pride was turned to dust,
Odysseus' ruse of Trozan Horse, made him of the God's accursed;
For Apollo's faith was crushed by heel of Grecian fleet,
And rape and pillage, with lust and greed, was rampant on the street
But fair Odysseus, with wanton fill, mindful of the weep and wail
With his Grecian hordes and a dozen ships to Ithaca did set sail
With hope-filled heart, with fair Penelope and Telemachus in mind
His course to fair Ithaca was charted and well and truly defined.
But fate, I did say, was most fickle-minded, and had deviously contrived
A fate which would try their grit and test how they fought, and survived.
And so the ships driven willy-nilly by the North Westers and South Easters
Drove them by predetermined chance to the Land of the Lotus Eaters.
The Lotus Eaters were a race which the world forgot in their drugged state
With food of the Nelumbo, of a species time forgot, but did their hunger sate,
And drugged their minds to exclusion of world, to family, and other cares.
Odysseus , abstinent was he,, dragged them back on board, with crew unawares.
Thence post-haste did the ships set sail and sighted fair isle with fatted cattle,
Fair game for stocking provisions, but first a Titan Cyclops they had to battle.
Odysseus, full of guile knew that force would lead to hapless naught,
So crept he in, midst cattle din, and there sleeping Polyphemus sought.
And there as the Cyclops soundly slept, blinded his eye, which was but one.
Polyphemus, Titan, unbeknownst to Odysseus, was Poseidon's beloved son.
With prideful boast Ithacan King, in derision his name did daringly decree.
Wild with rage, and dreadful pain, did Polyphemus call his father from the sea.
Deeply hurt at deceit and guile by which the Grecians blinded his offspring,
Poseidon did curse and said, " May stormy seas and whirly winds calamity bring"
So tossed about were the dozen ships, windblown and tossed on heaving seas.
With heavy heart and tired limb went they to Aeolus, the Wind God there to please.
~11 Jun 2016~
Imagine Earth itself to be just another Troy, from which, after having raged
In countless battles from Tyre to Megiddo has not been conquered, only aged
And now, having defeated the Spartan race, destroying Priam’s home
Odysseus is captain of a spacecraft with the direction of Ithaca not known
On land to land, world to world, asteroid to comet, sun to galaxy he will wander lost
With endless delay, look askance-or with wanderlust-be unable to define a host
Of angels, like the first home, who—with celestial sound—closed God on a throne
Only future starmen will proceed without God's advantage, in empty space all alone
The victory of God against Satan, here, unproclaimed with all men lost, in between
The endless battles of lucifer and the deity; heaven's splinter to the devil's spleen
The past ages of travail, a mere testing ground of efficacy, the master's saving grace
With the bulk of humanity, like chaff of wheat, having been sifted, as if only a race
Mankind, having run as a race, a race, quite long, the original cause forgotten
How corruption had entered, how the fall began, when Eve traipsed the garden
Yet the race of man; his nature, his spoke, his mind, like a wheel intermingled
Along with the path of the gods--their flight, their call--the Seth of Eve first jingled
How could he not but cry out, from crib, in inter-mixed and complex strain
Since so saith Adam's wife, doting upon her first real child aptly named
Appointed to replace her prior kind, one stricken and one banished
Shepherd Abel first, died, from blight of Cain, latter, whose soul famished
If not his body, since fed with fruit and till of the land, in parched curse
His work distilled into nonsense, and measure as much less in worth
Then the gentle, strange and loving work of the Shepherd's hand
From Shepherd to shepherd, the Maker gave not to Abel land
Since he roamed from brook to brook, or down into gentle meadow
With his staff in hand, and flock afoot, only the caves like ghettos
Learning manly ways and singing with chest open and bare
Under open sky, canopy misting light, and all of life seeming fair
The Lord, himself, culling Abel's rapport and favour, giving him trust
Rather than partition acres, cubits or parcels of land, if only just just
Far from this antique bay and moor,
your plaintive voice sung for my soul,
and lifted me to Ithaca's shore.
Can longing's echoes loudly toll,
and invite me to your front door,
like gods that decreed from a scroll.
I sailed to Troy and far beyond,
to go and fight an epic war.
Men joined, forming paired, loving bonds
to be their bright and glowing North Star.
I took a boy, a vibrant blonde,
with whom I shared many battle scars.
With Poseidon, the fates between,
the sea opposed us. But I loved
the youth, Penelope my Queen.
Please forgive us, my loyal dove,
and spare us from your jealous spleen,
so Zeus sends no bolts from above.
I loved you, but desire's arrow,
against my willpower pierced my heart!
Compelled by Cupid's dart and bow,
we made love. To honor royal art,
I cede my throne: — but you can't know,
loving you both tears me apart.
Without you, I was forced to grow?
*Reserata Carcerem XLVIII*
Sate jolting jungle 'n enclosed pen;
nosy nature's yawn gulped 'n' reeled rents,
bruised business time leases sucked spells -
apt alakazam writ ñ lone's breast.
Yore, Poseidon 'ter t' Ithaca,
skipped ñ Leviathan t' Rome's border
'n' anon t' th' jolting jungle fastened.
Ho! Rusty retina was moistened;
a haggard nymph ñ feeble fig sate -
sumptuous swell 'f breast, foiled fabrics trailed.
'wards felon fruit peered th' taunting ****,
'n' Poseidon, pious, rustic rage licked.
Hither thithered h' th' jolting jungle
'f which ere sewn sage's muse scribbled.
'20:07:17:13:22
Note:
a) of plagued pride.
b) Written apace with Middle English lexis:
i) Sate - sat
ii) Writ - written
iii) Lone - (of place) solitary
iv) Yore - long ago
v) Anon - Immediately
vi) Hither/thither - from here/to there
c) The following are used with no syllabic consequences:
i) 'n - in
ii) 'n' - and
iii) ñ - on
iv) 'ter - after
v) t' - to
vi) th' - the
vii) 'wards - towards
viii) 'f - of