The Journey

By way of change, a villanelle. I will admit to blatantly borrowing a few phrases from some other well known writers, but using them, I hope to different and good effect.

This was going to be about Arthur and Camelot - hence a line which survived - Uneasy is the head which bears the crown - but somehow it changed in the telling, and became a poem about Odysseus, travails, and the impact of changes on a life. On one level, this is a physical journey across a seascape, but it is also an existential journey of discovery, of change in time.

The Greek legends, especially Homer's Odyssey, are about the journey, a journey of many changes, and change itself is perilous, until at last the race is won, the journey is over. But in the meantime, he is buffeted by the fickle gods of Olympus, capricious, often uncaring, for this is a world in which fate is both a curse and a challenge to be overcome.

The Iliad is about the war to be fought; the Odyssey is about the journey home. There are always battles to be fought, and there is always the journey to find one's home afterwards.

The Journey

The breaking wave of time crashes down
Change comes, the dying in the night
Pray for those in peril, lest they drown

Uneasy is the head which bears the crown
Odysseus, Prince of Ithaca, in his plight
The breaking wave of time crashes down

Ships in the harbour of a provincial town
Seeking shelter from Poseidon’s blight
Pray for those in peril, lest they drown

A storm arises, like Zeus with angry frown
The rolling thunder after the blazing light
The breaking wave of time crashes down

Clinging to driftwood, mottled, brown
Odysseus seeking distant land in sight
Pray for those in peril, lest they drown

Journey’s end, Penelope in flowing gown
Homecomings, pain lost in the delight
The breaking wave of time crashes down
Pray for those in peril, lest they drown