Tuesday Poem: “The Trojan Shore”
The Trojan Shore
Tonight, the wind blows bitter
from the stony heights
beyond the city, gusts
at the thousand cook-fires,
lifts dust and grit from the plain,
driving through tent flaps
and into eyes, rank
with the stench of a siege camp –
combined sweat, wounds and excrement
assault every sense, beat at him
where he stands apart,
one more shadow on the beach,
one hand pushed hard
against his black prowed ship
while his eyes strain towards
the long horizon, strive
to see beyond it to the forsaken wife
and unknown child, to the island
hidden behind rising wind and wave –
lost, all lost now, abandoned
for barren conflict
along the Trojan shore.
(c) Helen Lowe
Published in JAAM 2008
—
I am currently organising a new Tuesday Poem series featuring poems themed around “war” and to bridge between that and my previous “Legendary” series, I thought I would repost The Trojan Shore (first posted in May last year.) Like last week’s poem The Wayfarer, this poem is from my Ithaca Conversations sequence. I feel this poem also resonates with my recent BookSworn post, When Characters We Love Die, where I discuss a few of my thoughts around war and realism in relation to fantasy fiction
—
To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.
Well worth a re-read, as is the “when characters we love die,” post. 🙂
Ah, glad you enjoyed both, Alicia!
Greetings from a little island/country called Bahrain! 😀
I happened to run into your blog, I’m slacking off at work- reading your poems and The Wall of Night … I regret not reading it earlier, it was sitting on my bookshelf for a while. Your books aren’t sold here but I will try to put in a word (we probably have 3 or 4 bookstores).
Welcome to “…on Anything, Really”, Aisha. 🙂
I have several readers in Dubai, but you are the first I have “e-met” from Bahrain–so I am glad you are enjoying the books, the poetry and the blog. And any and all ‘good words’ with bookstores and other readers are always appreciated.:)