Helen's was the face that launched a thousand ships -
so wrote Christopher Marlow
to explain what spurred their haste to take that trip;
but, I would like to ask him though,
this poet and playwright, wise and knowing -
which way were they going?
Cassandra, you who knew the leaves of time,
And traced them in your mind before they fell:
A gift perhaps for mortals too sublime,
Perhaps a cloak of darkness suits more well.
Cassandra, did you wish this thing to be?
To reach beyond the veil the future lays?
To now and all of time at once to see?
To live a life thus spread across all days?
Cassandra, had they heard, then Troy would stand,
But how can little merit know the best?
Too rare a soul for that more brutal band;
And so a diamond fell with all the rest.
You suffered twice, before and when Troy lost:
A gift immortal comes with mortal cost.
Why insensibly annoy
The three-year-old boy
With tales about Ancient Troy
That does gaiety destroy,
When you can his vivacity buoy
With some blue-eyed toy
Or a much sweetened soy
That heightens a child’s joy;
Or before him act a decoy
Or some crazy song employ
About a girl unprofitably coy
The Pure Gold, a sweetened soy
Tales about Troy, The Alloy.
In the midst of all the chaos, I think of you and wish I had your support and love.
Changing of the season; the leaves fall, and I wish I were that autumn leaf falling into your arms, or perhaps whisked away in the wind to a secret place where we can reunite and love like a family again.
In the midst of the chaos, I ache for peace, a yearning for steadiness while I put hope and faith on the front row like an Opera.
Where the lovers sing out to acapella; embracing their broken heart.
A love so strong it causes heatwaves in the middle of winter.
Two shooting stars crossing paths across a vast milky way, and crashing into one another to make love under the constellations.
The type of love and hate that grows tired with time as your womanzing, narcissism, and stonewalling only causes confusion, chaos, and heartache.
Yet in the middle of the chaos; I yearn for a love so strong.
A love so strong; like a Grecian goddess returning to her lover after she escapes Paris.
In the midst of all the chaos, I yearned for a love so strong.
A thousand ships your face launches
Pitting my ship against a fleet of others
Snatching my heart, in a morass of mud drugging my haunches
Pouring torrents of my tears and fears in front of my brothers
Rendering me disconsolate
Wondering why I let you in
Although it ain’t too late
To clean up the savoury scene
In which I swim in the juice
I find hard to invest or taste
Even when I manipulate the sluice
In slow motion or in a haste
To beseech your adorable facial asset to tone down the torment
On me you inflict
To establish whether blues you foment
Initiate no conflict
Between your conscience and hearts you singe
At will
When terrified hearts in front of you cringe
As you swill
The red wine of pain and strain you rain
On hapless hearts crazy enough to fall at the feet
Which in the main
Under duress greet
Your sublime beauty
At night, at sunup, at sunset, at dawn when by the nose
You pronounce me guilty
Of presenting you a Valentine red rose.
Coy Troy, oh he was a big boy
But he really could annoy
He was always single
With no girl to mingle
Because oh Troy was a big boy
Troy fell one night three thousand years ago
When Lord Agamemnon led his Achaeans
In a thousand black ships across the Aegean
To breach its walls and to conquer in the glow
From its flames and its fires, ’midst the dead and the dying,
‘Midst the sounds of the crashing and old women crying.
Thus famed Ilios fell, so many years ago.
Troy fell.
And the Scamander ran red and the warriors died.
Agamemnon killed all the men and enslaved the rest,
And laughed with his generals and his high-born guests
While the dead lay in heaps in the streets broad and wide,
While a bard sang of a war both noble and just,
While the towers with a sigh collapsed into dust,
While mortals asked their gods “Why?” and no god replied.
Troy fell.
And the Achaeans sailed home with their plunder and women.
And Troy was silent and the wind blew across her
And buried her walls until the grass grew over,
Until the site of Troy was forgotten by men,
Until Troy lived on in only legend and mist,
Until the ages passed and then, from the depths of Hisarlik,
The lost walls of Troy saw the sunlight again.
Boy From Troy
There once was a boy from Troy
That Unisys would not employ
He said he really didn't care
he'd find work elsewhere
Now he's working for Henkels and McCoy
Troy as a city of darkness
has his underlings
teaching the ways of wickedness
How to treat woman like playthings
His enticement of arena games
Watch me boys
See what I can get away with
We're on the night shift
In my cloak of playfulness
Tickle their feet and watch then giggle
As they dangle from a ladder
Eye them up longingly for the thrill
A medieval knight of the darkest kind
Watch your skirts girls
He'll come from behind
Playing his jokes of the sickest kind
(Anguish)
We are gasping
at the silence,
the strings
ceased to vibrate
We are lost, we are lost
In the emptiness
we have flashes,
and then your there
within us again
for just a sliver
of time
Your absolute joy
of amazing rhythm
still lives on breathing
new life in memory
(Celebration)
In the thousand sighs of sorrow
that have rippled from our lips,
when the pain has hooked his anchor
and when our hearts just cannot sleep?
Know the stars continue to shine
his joy and love will never cease,
the moon lays down tomorrow
so that we may find loves peace
For in the twinkle of his eyes
his essence of laughter shone,
his intentions never wavered
they shone bright as the sun
As eternity kisses his lips
and the lilies begin to weep,
know he is just there waiting
for us to join him in sleep
Troy James Wood ... 06.06.1970-24.02.2015
Your buildings were burned,
Your walls they were torn,
And just like that Priam's Kingdom was no more.
Your damnation was brought on by the lusts of a young man
named Paris,
For a young woman named Helan who was declared the fairest.
This is what brought to your land the Achaeans other wise known as the
Greeks,
Their soldiers,slaves, and their king,
To destory the trojans is what they did seek.
For ten long years there was blood,sweat and so many tears.
With no relief or gains,
Just more deaths and battle pains.
Untill Achilles and his shield,
Killed your bravest son Hector on the field.
The gods themselves were divided,
Ones on each side fighting,
All this for one young couples desire's
And so your buildings they were burned,
Your walls they were torn,
And the life of Priam and his kingdom and sons were no more,
destroyed they were,
All for one girl.
TROY
Fabled proud towers across the Aegean
Sheer walls never breached;
From far-off Hellas rarely seen
Till by the angry Greeks full-reached.
Burnt and humbled, a culture erased.
After ten years the city strong-walled
Was obliterated, washed away, effaced -
And history was appalled.
So also the Atlantis, Cumorah,and Inca delirium
Drowned in the flow of time,
Killed in their flowering, like Illium :
Such cultural perfection sublime.
The tide of history washes and cleans
Leaving no trace of stillborn might-have-beens
As if you are Helen of Troy
You are such a nasty playboy
You wear a beautiful mask
From dusk to dawn dawn to dusk
You hurt me with Cupid’s arrow
My life is now full of sorrow
As if you are deaf and blind
You can’t hear and read my mind
An Ocean of grief has welled in my soul
Grief of an orphan shrouded by injustice
And unto the legal gate of Georgia,
A thousand unjust deaths posted notice
Why should it be the innocent dove?
An amber fang of a Mephistophelian judge was imminent
Tearing all cloak innocence had worn
As holy truth assumed the position of the sun
Prime hatred was masking a noble in the court of law
And only the stainless blood of a lamb would please her rage
To atone the sorrows of a revenge-haunted family? (Truth denies)
O brothers why should it be the innocent Troy Davis?
The tears-laden heart of mine forever shall mourn his demise
His departing lines still anchor in the inner chamber of my soul
"To thee O family of the deceased cop
I may die but I am not your killer
And to thee my ruthless lethal killers
Pray for your souls for thou have soiled thy hands in my blood"
To my brothers who say it is legal
Empty your hates and embrace truth
Some things may be legal but not right
Slavery in its prime was legal
But to human dignity O brothers was it right?
An Ocean of grief has welled in my soul
Grief of an orphan shrouded by injustice
For innocent Troy Davis is dead!
Her “face could launch a thousand ships”
It was love at first sight as I watched her strip
Till her camel toe
Began to show
And I realized she didn’t have lips!
8/11/11
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