Tuesday Poem: “The Trojan Shore”
Ithaca Conversations:
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
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Currently, we in the Tuesday Poem community are celebrating our second birthday with an evolving poem on the topic of “the sounds of a birthday.”
You can check out the work in progress on the Tuesday Poem hub, here—as well as the Tuesday poem on each individual poet’s site via the side bar.
Nice. A good evocation of the costs of war on a personally emotional level.
Thank you, Paul: I am glad you enjoyed it.
Love it!!!
Thank you, Mary–& twas fabulous to see your ‘Rapunzel’ “>featured by Tim Jones as well.
🙂 Viva fairy tale and myth-inspired poetry, eh?
Yes indeed! 🙂
It’s good to see this poem again, and to enjoy it once more – I think I’m right in saying it’s the first piece of your writing I ever read, so it holds a special place for me!
Thank you, Tim—and for me!:)