Monday, January 30, 2023

A Poem for Penelope

 Ways of Motion

(A Poem)

Twisting and turning

Odysseus makes his way home.

Adventures, some call them.

I call them tribulations.

Plagues sent by a vengeful god

To throw the man of many turns aside.

While Penelope spun and wove

And undid her work secretly at night.

To fend off the intruders, the desperate,

And the merely curious.

Both masters of craft

One ranging widely, the other

Still as a black lake under starlight.

(Who knew what lay at the bottom?)

Perhaps I have been both, in turn

The one who waited, and one who fought

The one who roamed, and the one who thought

(Who knows what thoughts?)

Sometimes winning by a sword

And sometimes by a loom.  —Mary Hackworth

Wordplay is back. No, you haven’t killed us. We’ve been enjoying the simple pleasures of domesticity for several years, including porch-sitting, baking, and watching TV. Yes, I’ve come to really enjoy television, which is one thing that’s different about me now. The streaming services have created a lot more viewing options, and I quite like seeing what other people are watching as well as finding lesser-known favorites of my own.

No, this hasn’t turned into a poetry blog, but I wrote this poem the first week I was in this apartment, and it seems appropriate to start things back up with it. This is still a blog about mythology and everyday life, and I plan to write about things I’ve been seeing out there in the culture, just as I did before.

One quick reminder: Any opinions expressed here are my own, and they are merely that: opinions. I take full responsibility for them, and my guiding motto is still "Do No Harm."