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write4hire

A Week in the Cyclades




















The News From Mount Olympus

 “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die miserably every day/

for lack of what is found there.” 

William Carlos Williams

 

One week in the Cyclades

and it all becomes clear as standing

up to my chest in the clear blue Aegean,

 

a six-inch Sargo

wiggling over to bite a scab

on my shin with his needle-sharp teeth

 

and in that gasp of pain

I know that we are scavengers,

driven from the warm salty sea eons ago,

 

scared out of our earthly wits,

soon enough (as in ages later) inventing

jealous and vindictive gods in our own image

 

to protect us, sanctifying

godless vengeance along these beautiful

ancient islands, the remains of our barbarism

 

unearthed in the ruins at Delos,

Mycenae, Knossos, humanity’s best

intentions, the magnificent art, poetry, music,

 

buried in the dead flesh

of an unthinkable belief that havoc

butchery carnage could be traded for the blessed

 

illusion of safety as promised

by those unworthy of our faith, fake

gods who feed mercilessly off our tender souls,

 

cruel deities who will not

save us from our scarred and sacred selves,

or write the beautiful poetry of our own salvation.

 

—SL, New Paltz, NY, October 2024


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Jennifer Grayson
Jennifer Grayson
11 hours ago
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Wow. Another masterpiece. Thank you, Steve,

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Guest
6 days ago
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Your words ring so true. I also experienced the barbarisms in southern Virginia with 2 huge flags in huge writing F....Harris. We haven't moved an inch. It is sad and very scary....What will we leave behind in our legacy, which monuments?

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write4hire
5 days ago
Replying to

Thank you! (The site doesn't let me know your name, but southern Virginia gives me a clue.)

I'm hoping that Camus is right: “I realized, through it all, that.. in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” (Return to Tipasa)

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Annie Addington
Annie Addington
6 days ago
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Love to jump inside your words. And, here in Florida, there are many of these vehicles. Strange how these Nazis have made the symbol of the Flag and the Cross,symbols that inspire Fear.

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write4hire
5 days ago
Replying to

Thank you, dear friend!

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Guest
6 days ago
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

I am now 78 and realize that I have been in mourning for the very idea of "civilized" for some time. Thank you once again for your powerful and meaningful words. Eva Boice

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write4hire
5 days ago
Replying to

So good--heartening!--to hear from you, Eva! And something about being the same age cheers me.

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