In Sparta, we take care of our own.
We will die before we are done.
Shields to bash, spears to gash,
from hell to oblivion.
We fight for Peloponnesia and the Polis
with blood and phalanx,
till the battle is won.
The women are warriors
who also bear us daughters and sons.
Should she die in childbirth
then a warrior's funeral comes that one.
We will put them up
to match any warrior of the Amazon.
This is how it shall forever be, how it has always been.
If we are no more on this earth,
then for each other we will live on.
Categories:
sparta, anniversary,
Form: Rhyme
Spartan's courageous men standing,
Shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield.
Immortal warriors of the past
With King Leonidas by their side
A hero born for this day.
As proclaimed by the gods.
With their shields burning fiercely
with flames of fire.
Reaching out to embrace the enemy,
And their weapons honed on blood and bones.
From eternal battles,
hardening their hearts to stone.
Tempering their souls into cold steel.
Grinding their heels deeply into the ground.
Relentlessly united in defending their cultural ideals.
Or to die and be carried back to Sparta upon their shields
Categories:
sparta, courage, culture, freedom, history,
Form: Free verse
Paintings
- Impression: Sunrise by Claude Monet (1840-1926)
- Deer in Stream by Philip Goodwin (1881-1935)
Red sun climbs an impressionist sea
climb
Boats and waves dance a gymnopédie
time stands still
Doe and her fawn in a dawn reverie
they drink from a stream in their tranquility
They taunt me
whispers and shadows and vague silhouettes
still haunt me
Vainly grasping for words to explain
why?
Empty questions shed tears in the rain -
I don't know
Was there a season of darkness we missed?
A wave of emotion we somehow dismissed?
Au revoir, dawn
wondering how we will make it through
with our fawn gone?
//Dedicated to my Uncle Don and Aunt Betty whose son Andy took his own life at age 19
Lyrics may be sung to Gymnopédie #1 by Erik Satie
Gymnopédie - a dance of ancient Sparta
Impressionism - a movement of the late 19th century in both art and music with which Claude Monet (art) and Erik Satie (music) are most often affiliated//
Written 5 Aug 2022
Categories:
sparta, death, suicide,
Form: Lyric
The smiling assassin is wired and hot
and I can hear the ticking of the bomb,
for blind to the vanities I am not
nor deaf to the wept plaintive cries wherefrom
beats aggrieved an inconsolable heart,
betrayed by the Big Peacock born to strut -
not whole but divided in fractured part
by Zorba and Candy with tongues that cut.
Methinks the time has come to call a bluff -
to visit on Ellysian a Greek end
and let the dogs of Sparta huff and puff
in that way which conspirators defend.
Beware the pimp behind the Grecian mask
and the whore of his bidding he does task.
Written: November 2006
Categories:
sparta, betrayal, business,
Form: Sonnet
Spartans courageous men standing,
Shoulder to shoulder on the battlefield.
Immortal warriors of the past
With King Leonidas by their side
A hero born for this day.
As proclaimed by the gods.
With their shields burning fiercely with flames of fire.
Reaching out to embrace the enemy,
And their weapons honed on blood and bones.
From eternal battles, hardening their hearts to stone.
Tempering their souls into cold steel.
Grinding their heels deeply into the ground.
Relentlessly united in defending their cultural ideals.
Or to die and be carried back to Sparta upon their shields. I demand a critic.
Categories:
sparta, community, conflict, cry, death,
Form: Free verse
Lurking Darkness
Sleep now my love,
you have earned a great rest.
It has been hard on you.
It has been hard on us.
There is still time left.
They gave us days, you already proved them wrong.
You are a warrior, equal… toe to toe with Sparta.
They turned into weeks…and then months.
See, “they”, the white coats know nothing.
Believe me instead. “He” is listening to my words.
I am praying for you! You are my very breath, to his ears…
He misses nothing!
We tried their game of drugs and cuts and happy days.
There were really none. Sickness became the order of things.
Changing our thoughts, and sweeping away the tears…
left us tired, but not without hope.
The very fact that we now swim with the current,
knowing he is carrying us forward,
has provided a depth of peace…
un-achievable by pills and man made cures.
Higher than healing of the heart alone,
It is total and complete.
I am praying for everything.
I am praying for your soul.
Amen.
Categories:
sparta, anti bullying, hope, how
Form: Narrative
Look at you so small and sweet,
With your long whiskers and tiny feet.
Your black and your white,
You make everything feel alright.
Your my alpha and I'm your pack,
Helping peoples hearts is your nack.
Your fur so soft and smooth,
You look so elegant when you move.
The way you walk around me,
And show me your white tummy.
Helps me know that you are there,
When I think the worlds not fair.
Categories:
sparta, smile, uplifting,
Form: Rhyme
Heaven bound, hell-bent
Cradled between truth and false
Solitude well-spent in crowds
Among soul-filled emptiness he stays
Wisdom remains when one does grasp
We know not one thing at all
As he drank the poison
He died with this attained
Leave to Sparta where you may speak freely
To question without an answer
Spread your words like wildfire
Consummate them like an unavoidable cancer
But he chose to die in Athens
Heaven-bound, hell-bent
Governments await their deaths with no apology
Drinking the poisons of their hatred
Taking their curse as sustenance
We know not wisdom
Till humanity filters us through
And blinds our fear of death
And blinds our fear of you
September 4, 2013
Categories:
sparta, abuse, addiction, anger, angst,
Form: Free verse
laurels
military, athletic
wrestling, running, boxing
Athens, Sparta ~ Tokyo, London
karate, skateboarding, monobobsled ...
artistic, driven
medals
August 6, 2012
Categories:
sparta, 11th grade, adventure, change,
Form: Diamante
Completely agitated,
By the lack of understanding;
That allegedly makes up this place,
Unsincere in their "adult" demeanor,
Liars of federal truth,
Yet their paychecks speak non-fiction,
The mass of delegators, think they can mold me;
A statue that has already been set in stone,
Chiseled in imperfection, raw materials of an impressionist era,
This marking, is the least changeable,
I don't believe in gold, for it belongs to the fools
I be red; like the blood, from Titans, who represent Sparta,
A gladiator, with an olympic tongue;
Even my enemies are shushed to silence,
And so will they, if not by my antics then by my speech;
"Countrymen, lend me your ears, here the stakes I raise"
Take notice of the finger I hold prouldy up towards the sky,
Like a waving flag
Categories:
sparta, angst, people, places, political
Form: Free verse
All too strangled
Tingling like the cathedral bell
Woven together like a twine thread
long like end will never come
All rough and dusty
The trip to the immortal
Thirst is an understatement
Fire emanating from within
Water prickling down in an array
A continuous array
Slowly and steady
The trip to the immortal
Flesh all worn out
Perfume you can not find
Heart too heavy to walk
Leading to the thought of height and above
The trip to the immortal
Hearts swings in the wave of melody
Melody a path to accomplishment
Gazing at the Olympic ark
Athens is mine, Sparta I own
The trip to the immortal
See you at the other end of the bridge
Categories:
sparta, caregiving, imagination, inspirational, life,
Form: I do not know?
Eerini, greets the young Greek of Sparta
Shalom, answers the old Jew from Haifa
Assalam Alaikum, says the Arab Muslim
Peace, the Christian replies back to him.
Enough! so easily said but hardly meant.
Categories:
sparta, angst, introspection, life, peace,
Form: Verse
“For they fought with a ferocity unequaled, as though they had one foot in Hell.”
Resilient and strong they valiantly marched on
For they were Spartan warriors bred to fight
And the painful hunger in their bellies
Was the very least of their worries because
There would be no sleep for anyone tonight.
Forward, forward, another league more!
And their muscle and sinew did suffer,
But their solemn mission was quite clear
To repel their enemy with sword and spear
And act as a ferocious human buffer.
There were many among them who
Had thoughts of their loved ones,
Now numerous dusty miles hence
And prayers for safe return echoed in their minds
As they marched to their bloody offense.
“Onward, onward!” The officers cried out
As their hearts pounded like drums in their ears,
For they would fight to the death
With their very last breath, to protect Sparta
And the ones they loved dear.
Categories:
sparta, adventure, devotion, history,
Form: Dramatic Verse