{"id":1623,"date":"2010-10-05T10:39:50","date_gmt":"2010-10-04T21:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=1623"},"modified":"2010-10-05T20:24:52","modified_gmt":"2010-10-05T07:24:52","slug":"tuesday-poem-ithaca-conversations-argos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2010\/10\/05\/tuesday-poem-ithaca-conversations-argos\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: Ithaca Conversations—Argos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Argos <\/strong><\/p>\n

Lying nose to paws in the shadow of the arched gate,<\/p>\n

eyes fixed on the white, twisting road to the sea,<\/p>\n

listening for the familiar footstep, the beloved voice<\/p>\n

that urged me on as we raced together, over<\/p>\n

the rocky mountainside, both young, both strong<\/p>\n

of heart \u2013 how my voice echoed in the craggy<\/p>\n

heights, belling out for stag, or wild boar:\u00a0 all done,<\/p>\n

all done with now as I twitch in half-dreams,<\/p>\n

remembering, feeling that intoxicating rush again,<\/p>\n

while the young men shout their curses \u2013 mangy cur,<\/p>\n

flea-ridden beast, kicking me from the sunlit door,<\/p>\n

throwing bones or stones when they see me lying,<\/p>\n

patient in a patch of shade.\u00a0 Age has crept up on me,<\/p>\n

dimming my eyes but never the hope that draws<\/p>\n

me to the open gate, watching, always waiting \u2013<\/p>\n

but I do not know now, how much longer I can wait;<\/p>\n

I fear that soon, for me, there will be no more time.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

(c) Helen Lowe 2007<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Argos <\/em>forms part of my Ithaca Conversations<\/em> sequence, which I discussed in more detail when I posted another poem from the sequence<\/a>, The Wayfarer<\/em> on June 15.<\/p>\n

Argos was the favourite hound of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, who was absent from home for twenty years because of the Trojan war.\u00a0 When Odysseus finally returned home, disguised as a beggar, the old hound still knew him, even after so long \u2013 but died on the night of his return. As a child I always found the story particularly moving, so was not surprised when the voice of Argos emerged through the Ithaca Conversations sequence.<\/p>\n

Although one fellow poet locally opined that “it seemed an odd subject to write a poem about”, Argos<\/em> subsequently won Australia’s A2O poetry competition in 2007 and was published in the Writerlynks anthology Grow<\/strong><\/em>—which showcased poetry and fiction for young Australian readers—with the most wonderful accompanying illustration by Rowena Evans.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

To see the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Blog<\/strong>\u2014and link to other Tuesday Poets posting around NZ and the world\u2014either click here <\/a>or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 \u2013 how my voice echoed in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1623"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1639,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1623\/revisions\/1639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}