The Letter By Odysseus

I am but a mere mortal…

but still these thoughts seem wise,

watch now the World in blithe repose

and how these poor immortals sit gazing on our fears,

Benumbed by all the Seas and what we think it knows,

From all its piled high tomes,

And winds before long blown,

Wherewith to judge some other’s works and voyages towards home,

Before we read new written words,

It must pronounce our doom,

A Messenger now loudly speaks,

with graver message still,

Now listen how he climbs the mast,

“Awake, awake ye Towns!”

And cries to each horizon shore,

“The danger lurks below,”

For at our feet the danger looms,

In rocks of man-made signs

Like old Ulysses braved,

We hope shall point towards Home,

But we be hardly mariners,

Except within these songs,

And every rhyme we dreamt about,

But sailing on the sand.

-Albert Turner Goins