Ithaca Conversations
On Tuesday, I featured the poem One Day, from my Ithaca Conversations sequence as this week’s Tuesday Poem.
As I noted on Tuesday, the Ithaca Conversations sequence is a slant-wise (to paraphrase Emily Dickinson) look at characters and events from Homer’s The Odyssey.
Over recent years, I’ve featured several other poems from the sequence, so I thought I’d do a wee feature today, with links to the full poems. 😉
So, in order posted since 2010:
—
“The Wayfarer: Odysseus at Dodona
Acorns lie strewn with old leaves, thick
as years beneath the shadow of spreading oaks
where an old woman stoops, picking up sticks
that are no more or less twisted than she, binding
them onto her bent back, and watching with one
bright, blackbird eye as the wayfarer approaches,
an oar balanced across his knotted shoulder, his eyes
narrowed between deep seams, as one who has looked
out to numerous horizons and seen wonders…”
To read the full poem, click here.
The Wayfarer was a finalist in the Takahe Poetry Competition in 2006 (judged by David Howard) and published in Takahe 62. The post includes a reasonably full discussion of the Ithaca Conversations sequence.
—
“Argos
Lying nose to paws in the shadow of the arched gate,
eyes fixed on the white, twisting road to the sea,
listening for the familiar footstep, the beloved voice
that urged me on as we raced together, over
the rocky mountainside, both young, both strong
of heart – how my voice echoed in the craggy
heights, belling out for stag, or wild boar: all done,
all done with now…”
To read the full poem, click here.
Argos won Australia’s A2O poetry competition in 2007 and was published in the Writerlynks anthology Grow.
—
“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…”
To read the full poem, click here.
The Trojan Shore was published in JAAM 2008, edited by Tim Jones.
—
“Homing
He hears it, in every slap
of wave against wood,
as the ship cleaves water
like a seabird, hears the word
that he has hungered for
through the lost years,
whispered to him now
by the sea as it bears him up,
speeds him on like a lover
to the consummation
of his long-held dream
of home…”
To read the full poem, click here.
Homing was also published in JAAM 2008, edited by Tim Jones.
—
To finish, we had better come back to One Day
“One Day
He sits in the wide door to his father’s house,
playing with toys,
crudely painted soldiers with gilded helms,
gleaming in the sun.
His nurse tells him he is a prince,
will be a king some day, and a warrior;
his mother stoops, whispers,
tells him of his father who is king,
long lost, long sought,
longed for …”
The poem was posted in full on Tuesday, here.
One Day was published in International Literary Quarterly 14, February 2011
—
This is not all the Ithaca Conversations poems, but I hope it gives you a feeling for the sequence. Enjoy.
.