GREECE 2000 A.D.
Standing in front of the statues of the wise
noting how very wise they were
To be born at a ripe old age
and grow younger every year
Socrates for instance
(469-399)
certainly got it right
being born at seventy
and working backwards
to that point
of light
IN GREECE
In Greece
I remember and meet
myself everywhere
I am Socrates questioning
I am the athlete striving
the architect planning
the builder building, the potter shaping
the sculptor seeking, the warrior dying
and the poet pointing
In Greece
I am all men and all gods as well
and I remember
How many times in this life alone
I have pushed the rock endlessly uphill
Carried the world on my shoulders
Had my liver eaten by the savage bird
How many times
I have fallen in love with my own
reflection
Reached out for the sweet grapes and
sweet water
to find them moving always beyond my
grasp
Been forced to echo only what others
have said
Tied myself to the mast to resist the
siren’s call
Fought in a thousand wars
full out on the open field or sea
or hidden in the belly of a wooden horse
GREECE – INDEPENDENCE DAY 2000
We stand in the sunlight of Athens
birthplace of democracy, philosophy
theatre and reason
Here man first learned true freedom
Created gods
in the image of his vices and his virtues
and learned to embrace and best them all
Stores in Athens close for the parade
people gather from miles around
For hours past the viewing stand
soldiers and sailors march in step
Overhead the jets and choppers
roar by in strict formation
Thirty deep and more
people push and flow and smile on cue
I search the marchers and the crowd
Looking for that one toga, one book
One independent mind
One ancient Greek
OLYMPIC GAMES
In ancient Greece
the athlete was admired
statues raised in his honor
Olympic games every four years
the basis for the whole Greek calendar
Modern Olympics forget the Greek Ideal
of sound mind in sound body
Forget the many statues of the wise
Forget that Olympic games contained
display and competition
in poetry, in music, and in drama
In the modern Olympics every four years
a new sport is voted in
I vote to add the balance back
OLIVE OIL
In Greece last week
I bought a bottle of extra virgin olive oil
Which is a bit more expensive than the
regular virgin kind
I expect that it is due to the labor involved
tying all the branches apart
So that they don’t even touch themselves
KAROLINA
Artist Laureate of Mykanos
her adopted town floats above the canvas
Windmills dance on the hills
church domes and white houses
rebound light across the narrow lanes
Ships bob on the bluest water
watched by pink pelican and faithful dog
In her pictures, handsome Greek men
work the boats and bars
Forty years from Boston town
she knows too much of these men
but the island nights get cold
Her art raised their two children
it cost a lot
But to marry one of these
patriarchetypical sons of pirates
would have cost more soul
than this artist or her art would pay
MOMMA IN MYKONOS
Marolina says, enjoy the room
my eighty two year old mother
lives on the first floor under your stairs
call on her if you need anything
Momma doesn’t understand our English
but most important that we understand
she could understand, but chooses not to
She also knows that her daughter
must rent the rooms above her head
but she will not look up
WIDOWS
Greece is a land of widows
black dresses with brooms on empty stairs
This comes from ten thousand years of wars
Greece is a land of proud and arrogant men
This comes from lives of great danger
And the supply and demands of
ten thousand years of widows
THE SEA
In two days
three hours on the friendly sea
Back and forth from Mykonos to Delos
past rocks with good seats for sirens
rocking in a cradle still rocking
since the gods were young
Feeling the wake of the island
where she floated invisible in the mists
before agreeing to dig in her feet
and challenge the jealous Hera
providing Leto a birthplace for the
ever grateful Apollo and Artemis
Feeling their blessings
MOSAICS
On Delos a floor caught my eye
with an Escher like mosaic pattern
Optical illusions of rectangles in rows
still bright after thirty centuries
Next day in a New York airport
we take our seats in the lounge
fabric covering the chairs
in exact same pattern